A cute little diversion.

Hello S&P Brains!

Anyone up for a little pub gaming?

Oh, nothing major, of course. We're more about reading and discussing than playing video games.

But the ol' Skull & Pumpkin is trying out a few easy click games for all patrons to play whenever they wish, for free!

Just be sure to share.

First up for the Game Room, a little escape puzzle called, appropriately enough for our little homely house, Hallowe'en Escape!

Just use your mouse to find objects, use them together, and find a way out of the room. Simple, cute and fun, although there seems to be no sound at all -- it's the same at the host site, so I don't know what I can do about that.

I think it's cute, and if you like it, be sure to head over to the good folks at Free Halloween Games. 

I'll have more fun for the game room soon.

Enjoy!

DDScape!

Games people play.

Right, wrong -- they just can't stop it.

This vintage postcard image was sent to me by loyal S&Per Greymatter (must be the brains of the outfit, thanks GM!) and while I haven't the slightest notion of what is meant by '5allowe'en' or why it should require courage, it makes me happy.

It also immediately reminds me that some posts back I promised to post more about Hallowe'en games.

Unlike that post, however, this one will go decidedly "old school".

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That Hallowe'en is traditionally a time of fortune-telling and fortune-seeking is nothing new, but for many younger, modern Autumn folks, the notion of Hallowe'en as a romantic, match-making holiday might seem a little odd if not plain wrong.

I don't mean the ill-conceived pairings that often stumble into each other at drunken Hallowe'en parties; lying face down in someone's shower stall waiting for the ambulance and a stomach pump somehow strikes me as less than romantic, and hardly a good omen for your personal future, let alone your romantic future with the stranger who kissed you then had to call 911 'cause your eyes never opened after the kiss.

But to All Hallow's Eve celebrants in Victorian days and well into the turn of the 20th century, Hallowe'en was a decidedly romantic time for grown ups, for young men, sure, but especially for young women who were ready (or at least thought they were ready) for marriage and motherhood... and the little sisters of those same young women, who loved the giggling, grandiose pre-teen fantasy of romance.

For evidence of this, one need look no further than the vintage Hallowe'en postcard.

AH! Witches, young girls and bobbing for apples. As vintage Hallowe'en as it gets.

Apple bobbing, or 'ducking', was ridiculously popular at Hallowe'en for generations, and especially from the 1900's until at least the 1940's (and it features for a short moment in It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown in 1966, so it held on for a long time. Yuck!). 

The variations were many, but one of the most popular was a ducking game where three of the apples had hidden inside them a dime, a ring, or a button. These respectively denoted the finders fortune, romance or "single blessedness" (you have to love the Victorian zeal to remove from the loser the embarrassment of loserhood by simply calling it something else). 

Another variant has the bobber (does that make the apple the bobbee?) 

sleep with that apple under their pillow that night to see their future sweetheart 

in their dreams. I imagine it was even better if their future sweetheart was a 

chiropractor after that particular night's sleep.

In other versions, young would-be brides were admonished to eat the apple 

as they brushed their hair at midnight, and they would see 

the reflection of their future groom in the mirror.

But if she turned to look over her shoulder to see if he was really there, he'd disappear, 

and then who knew what would replace his reflection?

In fact, mirrors figure prominently in early Hallowe'en romance games. 

The variations here too are many, but the common denominator was 

waiting until midnight, the witching hour. 

I think, given what's actually happening here, this girl seems awfully calm and in control. 

In case it's difficult to read the text:

ALL  HALLOW  E'EN

May the reflection which you see 

Be the counterfeit of me.

Seems more Mirror of Erised than anything else, but maybe that was high romance back then.

 A girl, her pumpkin-vanity mirror, and yes folks, that's CUPID, stinkin' cherubic li'l Cupid

up there on a Hallowe'en postcard. He shows up here too:

Apparently Cupid, dressed as a witch, got people to do all these weird things. A candle's

grease will spell the name of your partner? Hhmmm... no chance for cheating there!

Another water bowl divination game, this time a Scottish card depicting a

Scottish tradition. The three 'luggies', as the wooden bowls are called, are filled with

clean water, dirty water and no water, by touching which the blindfolded player

would decide if they were marrying a virgin, will be widowed, or 

will not find love -- all while Big Jupiter Head Disco Man 

prepares to enter the Time-Space Portal. What?

Blowing out candles as expediently as possible was another 

means of romantic divination. As the above card tells us,

a single puff meant the best chance of wedding soon; two

meant less of a chance, and three or more meant you

would, um... enjoy "single blessedness" for the coming year.

I absolutely do not know what any amount of puffs on a candle attached

to a swinging apple meant to anyone's romantic plans, and am a little

afraid to find out. All I can really say is, given the amount of

volatile makeups, clothing, hair pomades and perfumes in those days, this was

a really, really good idea and made for many fun parties.

Apples are prominent Fall fruits, so they play a large part in these old games, and one

of my favorites is the Peeling Game, where players try to peel an apple with

a long, single slice, and wherever it breaks, toss it over their shoulder to the floor.

The fallen peel's shape will indicate the initial(s) of your soon-to-be-betrothed.

The beyond-chance preponderance of Victorian marriages to men with names

beginning with s, e, u, c and o is finally explained.

Here's a game for which I can locate no illustration, but must share as I read in 

The Big Book of Hallowe'en Fun:

"... at dusk on Halloween night, sit in front of an open fire with your friend or love. Each of you should take a nut and place it in front of the flames. Watch the nuts to see if they glow and smolder, or burst and crackle. If both glow and smolder, it means that your relationship will be a lasting one. If one bursts, or worse, if both burst and crackle, it means that your relationship will end in a terrible argument."

Yep. Probably over why you chose to play a game that ended with her getting glowing cinders

of hot, exploded nut shell in her eyes.

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Oh, the traditional Victorian Hallowe'en Romance Game.

So warm, so normal, so not weird at all.

Apparently, some of us quite literally would not be here but for you.

More games to come another time.
For now, next week's trip to Monsterpalooza looms large...

More soon!

O'ZOM-beeee!

"Tread carefully now..."

Hello S&Pers!

Oh don't get up. The box isn't heavy, I'm alright.

Whew! Okay.

So how has everyone been?

I know I don't get in here too often lately -- things just pile up -- but I always come by late at night after all that pile up gets a little less, uh... piled. What?

Anyway, tonight I bring a little bit of monstery, Hallowe'eny goodness in the form of a video game.

Not quite as "old school" as Odyssey, Pong, or Atari, no. But in these days of that is so five minutes ago tech, anything from the early '90s is damn near ancient.

From Electronic Arts comes one of my Top 5 favorite games, video or otherwise:

Escape From Monster Manor!

Man! I love this old game!

I think it'll hook up to the Predicta TV atop the bar, so we can all see it as we play.

Alright -- hook up should be simple -- there!



The game was made by Electronic Arts in 1993, for the Panasonic 3DO Interactive Multiplayer console, a grand, noble but ultimately failed gaming system that cost too much initially ($700 US in 1993?!), and had too many golf and soccer games and not enough interesting games by the time the console was affordable.

I certainly was never going to buy that system -- I made a good living then but no way was I dropping that kind of money when I've never been much of a video game kinda guy -- but when I saw the box for this game in the $7 bargain bin at my local big box store in 1995, I figured it looked so cool and had to do with monster, ghosts and haunted houses that there was no point in not buying it for seven bucks. I also figured at some point soon, the game system would be obsolete, cheap and plentiful, and when that happened, I'd be killing myself for not buying this when it was available.

Well, within a year I'd met someone who pointed to the game on one of my shelves and asked if I had the 3DO.

"Nope. Just bought the game really cheap, waiting for the system to drop into my lap."

He laughed. "I'll sell you mine for $100."

In my house we call the game 'Shootin' Ghosts', and I've been doing it off and on ever since that fateful meeting.

I especially love to play it at night, during the long winter 'off season'. Something seems very right about it -- put on some tunes, make some hot chocolate, shoot ghosts. Simple heaven.

How can you not love it? Such imagery:

And when you took one too many hits, you got this, bubbling up from behind your attacker, laughing at your foolish mortal attempt to defeat its eeeeeeeeviiiiilll:

I cannot tell you how happy I am to have found it (I knew it was in the house, but it took a month of casual searching to find the whole system!), and to bring it here. I know we're not about video games in this ol' pub, but I also knew you would all enjoy the heck out of seeing it at least this once.

Escape From Monster Manor, the Skull & Pumpkin salutes you. With a ray gun and a bunch of keys and pieces of a magic talisman...

... and no fear about what's around that corner...


More Hallowe'eny games to come soon. For now, more work calls.

Catch you on St. Patty's Day-


O' ZOM-beeee!