My games from 1999 [Part 1: Petka and HIV: Judgment Day]
You know, I have a rather ambiguous relationship with my channel on our beloved YouTube. Recently… Relatively recently, I became involved in dashing streamers and dabbled in all sorts of old stuff. But my computer, bought for 6 shekels from my mother’s not at all suspicious programmer, died suddenly. I haven’t had much luck with the gaming industry since 2012 (ArMiYa). And he is infinitely behind modern trends in this field. However, relatively recently, prices for acceptable iron have risen to unprecedented heights. And as a result, the demand for nostalgia went up. And due to the fact that I have been divorced from the gaming industry since 2012, I am a recognized connoisseur of all things retro. Although for me this is gray everyday life, but for you, my sweet mother’s jelly, it might be interesting to learn something new about that very gaming industry about which 25-year-old grandfathers whine at every step, cursing modern tolerant times. So, what am I planning, you ask me, comrade? (Or not…)
I’ve been playing games for quite a long time and I’ve seen a lot of different things. For example, I could go through the first Flashpoint operation with the Resistace add-on in 2010, or chase lemings through dungeons in 2020. Not long ago a thought occurred to me:
– Hey Wulfik, you son of a bitch! How about doing your job honestly as an engineer??
– A? I’m just a civil engineer, it’s okay if everything is done “badly”.
So what am I talking about?
I went to the Babylonian library, https://hippozinocasino.co.uk/mobile-app/ which stores all the knowledge of the world (Wikipedia) and began to look at lists of computer games by year of release. And I discovered that many of the games that I came across in my childhood were released back in the 90s. However, more or less clear memories of game names date back to around 98. And I decided! I decided to copy this entire list into a Word file, subject it to deliberate castration and leave about a dozen titles with which I have childhood (and not only) memories. Well, since I used to be good at reviews, why not YES! A This is just an announcement of a dozen games from 1999. Why 99? Because there were a dozen there, my little dumpling. Well, this is also a reason to remind you that good old crazy Wulfik is still alive. Well.
Today we will talk about I’m not afraid of this founder of the Russian quest genre. Most likely, the most stuffy bath attendants will come running from the surrounding villages and urban settlements and will chant: “Wulfik has gone nuts.”! Before Petka there were a million Russian quests!“- these gentlemen will be partly right. But only partly. Before Petka there were Russian point and click adventures. All sorts of Pinocchios, Vinipuhs for the Spectrum. Well. you know… Spectrum..
Star Legacy in the Elite Universe? How do you like it? Okay, okay… Here’s the Princess for PC from 1994! Ivan Lozhkin? You probably know about the Pilot Brothers, because some Russian-speaking streamers from time to time fly into this original copy of the Goblins. In any case, I’m talking specifically about RUSSIAN QUESTS. Obscene collections of jokes with colorful characters, googly-eyed (or as they call it now – tube) animation, pussies, asses and… Communism! And it was Petka and Vasily Ivanovich who largely determined the vector of movement of all the others. By the way, they determined it already in 1998, when they set out to save the galaxy from an alien enemy.
In general, my acquaintance with the series occurred around 2003–2004, when I got my first computer. And it’s not me, but my grandmother’s. She needed it for work, but already at that tender age I understood the basic idea of communism, and therefore… OUR computer. So here it is. In our small urban village, at that time there was only one salon that sold computers. And as if in the image and likeness of one PC there were thousands of them. The point is that every PC in my town had the same software installed. And by software I mean Windows 98, Microsoft Office, for extra. Doctor Web board and of course… Petka 3, Unreal Tournament and RedAlert 2. Well, what a thrill… But we are talking about 1999, so we will consider the second part of the adventures of our RED COMRADES.
The fact is that the second Petka is a compilation of materials not included in the first part, hastily reassembled into a new part. For example, the first part of Petka was in development at the SKIF company for three long creative years, and the second for only ten months, at the same studio. In this regard, many locations of the second Petka migrated from the first. At the time, this slightly spoiled the players’ experience. BUT! The plot is new, the jokes are still as catchy, and the voices of the Soyuz-cartoon voice actors create 50% of the entire game. What a blast to hear Shura Karetny in a new role. Who remembers “GATEWAYS” plus sign in chat! If we summarize this whole comparison, then the first part of Petka is a Friday night drinking in a cheerful company, and the second Petka is when you go to get a hangover in the morning.
From a gameplay point of view, Petka is a point-and-click adventure, however, in the old days, before all these reboots, we had a circular… stellar? In short, a menu for selecting actions, including. Consider and give your point of view. Touch or interact. Pick up. Let Vasily Ivanovich figure it out. AND…WALKING. No clues! What the hell is this easy mod?!? Yes, to think of asking Anka for the stockings that the fucking biker needs, whom we ask to intimidate the store clerk, so that we don’t have to… (“a knife to the throat,” Petka’s phrase) and in gratitude he gave us a barrel of moonshine, which we would later exchange WITH HIM for Scotch whiskey for the alcoholic in the nearest gateway and canned dog food to advance in the game… We collected entire commissions are at recess, and there was always… there was always that same “not smart person” who came up with even more incomprehensible crap and “blatantly lied” to everyone that this moment had long passed… Hmm… so here. I think it’s no secret that in Russian quests all the tasks facing the player are solved in some completely ridiculous way using the SmekalOchKi sauce. Petka was like that… This applies to all parts.
Speaking about a graphical quest, we cannot ignore the actual graphical component. Everything is great here with Petka. The backdrops of Perdey’s relatives are so colorful and familiar to the heart. Amazing character animation. A carriage and three barges reference themes popular at the time, films, music, games. Before adult cartoons became commonplace and became mainstream, we had Petka and HIV… Well, I mean, that’s what they sometimes call the game… Vasily Ivanovich Chapaev… By the first letters… In short, let’s move on! Speaking of references. In addition to visual references and humor, the game also contains audio references. Many popular musical compositions at that time had their own cover in Petka, played on a balalaika, button accordion and Soviet synthesizer. My respects.
The plot in Petka is something that contributes to adventure, but is not the main goal. The plot of Doomsday is something like this: HIV is kidnapped by aliens, they make a terminator out of him, and at the same time they insert a chip into his brain that prevents him from sleeping like a human, and therefore he lifts the crazy Petka out of bed and they set off to look for a way to remove the evil chip. Along the way, something goes wrong and they are teleported into the future 50 years in advance… to America… And in the end they are rock stars… Sounds crazy? Another distinctive feature of Russian quests, by the way.
The bottom line is that we have a fairly strong representative of his genre, which, even in its castrated form, is head and shoulders above any Shtyrlitsov there. I truly love this series of games and recommend everyone to check it out. Moreover, not so long ago the first three parts received a re-release, adapted for modern hardware and modern gamers. Petka’s crazy game. I played all the parts and perhaps in the future we will come across some more of them along the way. Well, that’s all for me today. See you in the next video\not video, comrades!
I haven’t been here for a long time. If I violated the unspoken rules of publication somewhere, then forgive me. How are you doing?? :3
