Introduction

It was a dark and stormy night...

Rain hammered the car roof with the ferocity of hail. The windshield wipers did little to help as sheets of water cascaded down the glass between every beat. The road itself was dark with no lights besides your headlights, the beams casting eerie shadows on the gnarled trees as you drove past.

Or they would, if the car was moving.

Because of course the car broke down, leaving you stranded on a remote country road far from the nearest town. You sat in the driver's seat looking at the MapQuest printout, determining it to be useless given the lack of signage on remote country roads.

You did, however, receive a surprisingly detailed novelty map of local landmarks from when you stopped at a diner an hour ago. Squinting out the window, the headlights just illuminated a large rock with a pointed tip near the base of a tree. A good match for the "Wytch Hat Stone" on the map.

According to the novelty map, there were three mansions nearby: the Edison Mansion, the Derceto Manor, and the DeFoe Manor. Perhaps one of them would have a phone you could use. Or at least be a quieter place to spend the night, the incessant hammering of the raindrops was really loud. The flashes of lightning every time you mumbled the names of any mansion would help illuminate your way.

And surely the "Beware And Avoid" heading on the map was just a marketing gimmick, right?

Welcome to the Spooky Mansion Arcade Special!

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I shall be your hostess this delightfully dreary evening.

Now as your hostess, I must be upfront with you: I have no personal experience with any of these titles. I originally nominated Maniac Mansion since I have wanted to play it for some time, but then realized there are many old games set in spooky mansions. And I also had the thought: what better time to explore some creepy mansions than October, the month most associated with all things spooky and creepy?

So for this month's adventure, I have selected three potential mansions for us to tour: the classic LucasArts game Maniac Mansion, the classic survival horror game Alone in the Dark, and the freeware adventure game 5 Days A Stranger. All three provide glimpses into different periods and niches of gaming history.

Maniac Mansion (1987) helped redefine the adventure game genre, and established LucasArts as a powerhouse in gaming. It removed many frustrations of the genre such as guessing and typing text commands in favor of one of the first point-and-click interfaces, or super-linear puzzles with specific solutions. It placed more emphasis on cinematic storytelling, and added humor to a generally serious genre.

Alone in the Dark (1992) meanwhile is one of the games that defined the survival horror genre alongside Sweet Home. It was the first 3D survival horror game, with many of its mechanics such as limited inventory and a focus on survival over combat appearing to this day. Even the first Resident Evil game was influenced by it, nixing the original plan of first-person gameplay for similar fixed camera angles.

5 Days a Stranger (2003) is comparatively lesser known and influential than the other two. However, it's also CGA's first foray into the early indie dev scene! This is a freeware game about a cat burglar who becomes trapped in a house with four others, and is the first part of a series called the Chzo Mythos. Its developer is likely to be familiar: Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw, famous for the Zero Punctuation review series for The Escapist.

Also: it's free. Of all the games we've played to date, this may be the most accessible because it's always been free, so no legal barriers.

Moving on.

You have your choice of up to three beautiful mansions to explore. I have hopefully given you enough information to decide which to visit first. They can't be worse than spending the night in a tiny, cramped, broken car. Feel free to chant the names of whichever mansion you most prefer as you begin the mad dash through the rain. The dramatic lightning flashes are so convenient, aren't they?

I hope you all have a terrific time.

GAME INFORMATION

Game Setup

The main purpose of this topic is to get people up and running with the games. As such, it's recommended that you:

• Share which version of the games you're playing
• Share what hardware you're playing it on
• Share if there are any tools/mods that you recommend
• Share anything you think is important for people to know before they start the game
• Ask questions if you need help

Another purpose of this topic is to revisit the games and their time periods:

• Do you have any memories or associations with this game itself?
• What about its system or era?
• What aspects of retro gaming were common at the time?
• What other games from the same time period are you familiar with?
• What are you expecting from this game in particular?

Finally, this topic is the beginning discussion for people starting to play it:

• Post updates sharing your thoughts as you play.
• Ask for help if you get stuck.
• Offer help to others.

It is recommended that you reply to your own posts if you are making consecutive updates so that they are in the same thread.

IMPORTANT: Any links to the game should be legal distributions of the game only. Please do NOT link to any unauthorized copies.

IMPORTANT: Put any spoilers in a dropdown block. Copy/paste the block below if needed.

<details>
<summary>Spoilers</summary>

Spoiler text goes here.
</details>

FAQ

Enter if you dare...

> PRESS START

(Credit to @Boojum for the splash screen!)

So I've heard that (at least some of) you have, trounced every park's leaderboard, cleared all goals (including the cash ones), and racked up 3 gold medals from the occasional competition stages.

If that's true, then congratulations! You're basically legend-level; Tony Hawk himself would be impressed.
But what if I told you there's more to do after a full Career Mode clean sweep? Shocker, I know. Here are two hints:

• Land a successful trick in every gap on every Career Mode park (ideally in Free Skate)
• Spend an absurd amount of time 100%-ing every skater's Career Mode

Sounds simple, right? But it's also... an absolutely herculean task. I won't blame you if you reach for the cheat codes hidden there to skip the grind. And for anyone on the N64 or GBC versions of Pro Skater 2: tough luck, as no such things are available there to my knowledge.

Now the real question: where are you going to rest after all that? Blow your remaining hard-earned cash on some old, shady place you found on your dinky desktop out of pure desperation? Don't worry, u/CannibalisticApple will walk you through those sketchy mansions and manors on the next CGA month.

Until then, drop your feats and thoughts about your journey to becoming one of skateboarding's champions.

Later, gators!

Schedule

Lately on YouTube I’ve been getting a few really weird ads.

The first was a 5 second spot video for Fatty brand meat sticks. They say “vegans look away” as they spin on the screen.

I’m plant-based: I don’t eat animal products 99.9% of the time. And well before I was like this I wouldn’t have eaten their product because meat sticks were just simply gross. But literally every time I see an advertisement for a food product I see something that looks more like actual meat on the screen so when I see the ad in question, it is basically the single most flaccid insult I have ever seen.

I wouldn’t even be bringing it up except for today I had a different ad show up from dbrand, this time as an image as I was looking through the recommended videos. It was a screenshot of a conversation between them and peta over some leather something or other.

I just think about what this kind of advertising is supposed to do. It’s supposed to position the product in a persons mind. It says to them “buy this to stick it to those leftist vegan cucks” while still being soft enough that a leftist vegan cuck might not be bothered by it and might still consider buying it.

But I think there is a different message we should take from these ads: these companies are run by assholes. The fact that leather and meat require animals to die is a morbid fact that our society has accepted, and rubbing that into the faces of those who disagree with it is not a good look; it just reveals them as the children that they are.

While my dietary restrictions may have prevented me from buying anything from Fatty, the only thing stopping me from buying from dbrand is their own idiotic marketing. Why on earth did they think that they think that their trolling would be effective advertising outside of the trolling website?

The US Nintendo eShop currently has sales for Pikmin 1, Pikmin 2, Pikmin 1 + 2 bundle, Pikmin 3 Deluxe, and Pikmin 4.

I've never played a Pikmin game before. Which would y'all recommend if I were to only buy one of these options?

I've had plenty of fun conversations with friends about this topic and figure all you Tilders would have some interesting ideas/thoughts.

• Are there any games that you've always wished for?
• Has there been a game that captured your imagination but fell short in one or more areas?
• Have you ever wanted to smash elements from two or more games together?

Don't let budgetary/IP constraints ruin your dreams here!