This film is based on an off-Broadway musical that itself was based on a low budget cult-classic black and white horror film.

The film stars Rick Moranis, who plays a nerdy florist who works at a floral shop in a poor neighborhood. The owner, Mr. Mushnik, is about to close the shop due to weeks of little to no business, when it is revealed that Seymour bought a strange plant to try to improve business. He names the plant Audrey II, after the other employee of the florist, a girl who Seymour has a huge crush on. The strange plant brings in a ton of business from curious people coming in to see it. Seymour soon has a problem, as the plant is slowly dying. He tries everything to make it healthy, and pricks his finger on a thorn. The plant responds to the blood, and Seymour soon finds out that human blood will make the plant thrive. This is when the fun kicks in, and the horror plot soon unfolds as the plant gets larger and larger and needs more blood than Seymour can provide.

Remaking the film into a musical seems like a strange choice, but it works well. The movie is made very tounge-in-cheek with over the top acting, and unrealistic 1950s and 60s era American ideals. The musical actually makes all this campiness a lot of fun. The music was written by the famed musical duo of Howard Ashman and Alan Menken, who would later write the music for the Disney animated films Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin. The music is written in the style of 1960s rock and roll, and is incredibly memorable. A song sung by Steve Martin, who plays Audrey’s abusive dentist boyfriend, easily steals the show.

Fans of the original musical will be somewhat sad to know that the ending has changed here to something movie test audiences found more satisfying. In the process, one entire song from the musical is omitted from the movie, and is available only on the movie’s soundtrack. However, if you want to see the original ending there are DVDs available with deleted scenes with an unfinished print of the original ending on them. For most people this won’t be an issue, as the new scene in question does work quite well to end the movie.

The music is wonderful and the casting is great. There are plenty of cameos of Saturday Night Live and SCTV alumni throughout the film. The movie is over-the-top and very campy, but as it is based on a low budget horror film it works out well. If you’re a fan of musicals or horror-comedies, you owe it to yourself to see this movie.

Beetlejuice features a newly-wed couple who die in an accident as soon as they move into their new home. Before the couple even realizes they are dead, their home is put up for sale. The new family, the Deetzes, move in and turn out to be quite opposite to the folksy attitude of the deceased couple. They decide that they want to scare the Deetzes out of their home, but turn out to be too nice to do so. They decide to hire a self-proclaimed “bio-exercist” named Beetle Juice, who turns out to have his own ulterior motives for helping them out.

The film is brilliantly cast. Michael Keaton is perfect as the wise-cracking, foul-smelling undead con-man Beetle Juice. Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis are the kind, folksy newly-dead couple. Jeffery Jones and Catherine O’Hara are wonderful as the pretentious Deetzes. Winona Ryder plays probably the most memorable role of her career as Lydia Deetz, the daughter of Charles Deetz, a gothic girl who has an obsession with the morbid.

The musical score by Danny Elfman is wonderful, and very memorable. The film also contains a memorable song and dance comedy routine to the tune of Day-O (The Banana Boat Song). It happens so abruptly, and is so delightfully strange, but somehow manages to not feel out of place.

Beetlejuice is a comedy classic. The music is great, the comedy is wonderful, and all of Tim Burton’s trademark nightmare-like sets and creature designs are here. If you haven’t seen it yet, take the time to watch it.

I just found out the Amiga versions of a lot of Sierra AGI and SCI games are available to download legally from Back to the Roots

The first game I finished was The Black Cauldron. I’ve always loved the Disney film ever since I first saw it as a little girl, so when I saw it in the back2roots.org list, I knew I had to play it.

I enjoyed it quite a bit. Using ScummVM it was (mostly) point-and-click. What a program! I don’t know what an adventuress such as myself would do without it.

All the love it or hate it aspects of Sierra’s early adventure games are here. You will die in the game a lot, so follow the Sierra motto: “Save early, save often”.

However, the Black Cauldron did things right exactly as The Last Crusade did over at Lucasfilm Games. It stuck to the story enough so that if you were a fan of the movie you could play some of the best parts, but it differed from the story enough to not be too derivative. I was also pleasantly surprised to see some of Al Lowe’s trademark humor made it’s way in there.

Also, apparently it has many different possible endings! I guess I’m going to have to play it through again to see some of those. But first, I think I’ll play through another Sierra game. :)

When my dad got our first computer, he considered getting an Amiga because at the time it’s graphics capabilities were much more advanced than the IBM-compatible PCs, and I liked drawing a lot.

In the end though, he settled for an IBM 286, because the PCs had more software. I think the real reason though was that the computer he got came with a golf game pre-installed. ;)

I never did own an Amiga, and my dad had Macintoshes for work, so his computers were never Amigas either. I did get to play Amiga games many years later though. Back to the Roots has many Amiga games, many of which are considered classics today, available to download legally. I love adventure games, so I’ve been using the games in ScummVM on my Mom’s laptop.

I love that so many companies have allowed Back to the Roots to distribute their old Amiga games. It’s great when companies allow free download of games they no longer sell. I wish more companies would realize that it doesn’t hurt them at all, and it only helps them get more fans of their games.

Oh my goodness! I was watching the Strong Bad emails on homestarrunner.com and I came across this! I can’t believe there is someone else who puts gummy bears in their skim milk! And now there is actually a name for it! Suudsu!

I’ve been putting gummy bears in my milk ever since I was a little girl. Back then it was 2% milk, since my dad wouldn’t drink anything less, as he said it was too much water and not enough cream. When I grew up though, I started drinking skim milk, and I never did grow out of tossing my gummy bears into it. :)

I like how the gummy bears get a different texture at different times as you drink your milk. First they are hard because they are cold from the milk. Then as you drink your milk, they become more chewy, until the end (if you drink your milk slow enough) they are actually softer and easier to chew than they were before you submerged their bear bodies into the milk. :D The milk also takes on the fruity taste of the gummy bears. It’s actually quite good. :)

Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis has a lot going for it. It has a great story, wonderful voice acting, and Sophia Hapgood is a no-nonsense woman who is as great a love interest for Indy as Marion Ravenwood was in Raiders.

However, many of the puzzles in the game are more annoying than entertaining. Even with a walkthrough, the stone puzzles still have me totally confused. Both times I played through the game I had to get past the majority of those puzzles through trial and error. Those stone puzzles occur a lot in this game, so that detracted a lot from my enjoyment of the game.

Like Zak McKracken, I’m glad I played through it for the great story and characters, but many of the puzzles were too frustrating for me to play through it countless times like I do with some of the other LucasArts graphic adventures.

We got an NES in Christmas 1988 when Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt came bundled with the system. It wasn’t the first video game system I played as my dad was a gamer and had an Odyssey and an Atari 2600 that I remember playing when I was a really little girl. But the Nintendo was the first system that really left a mark on me, and the reason I still enjoy video gaming today.

The Nintendo was the first system that introduced me to stories in games. Before this, I had always just played arcade-style games either in the arcade or on our early video game systems, where the games were just a fun distractions, but really didn’t have too much to them. Now, I really found myself getting immersed in games, really wanting to get to the ending to finish the story. This love of story-based games that I found came to a head when I discovered the graphic adventure game. The graphic adventure genre is still my favorite of all video game genres even today, and my love for them started with Maniac Mansion on the NES. :)

I never played a lot of adventure games outside of LucasArts and Sierra when I was a little girl.

I was always really interested in the ScummVM project, since I love all of LucasArts’ adventure games, and ScummVM was working to support all of their two dimensional point and click SCUMM games.

When ScummVM added support for Beneath a Steel Sky with support from Revolution Software, complete with a free legal download of the game, I knew I had to try it.

I wasn’t expecting too much, but I ended up loving it. It has much of the LucasArts qualities of design. There are not many instances of death (though there is one part that requires speed and one death that doesn’t come with a warning), the voice acting is well done, and best of all the story is exceptional.

Beneath a Steel Sky takes place in a dystopian future where computers have taken over everything in the big city, and people who live outside the city and computer-control are treated poorly and refused entrance to the city. The mother of the hero of the game, Robert Foster, was killed in a helicopter crash. Years later, a helicopter much like the one that killed his mother has come to get him. Robert escapes and tries to get out of the city and find out why these people are after him.

I’m so glad that Revolution helped ScummVM add support for this game, as I most likely would have never have played it otherwise. I’m very glad that I did. :)

Revolution Software gave the sourcecode to their second game, Beneath a Steel Sky, to the ScummVM team to add to their awesome program. Revolution also released the game for free legal download for use with ScummVM. I had never heard of Revolution before, as I didn’t venture out too far from LucasArts when I was looking for an adventure game to play when I was a little girl.

I absolutely loved Beneath a Steel Sky, so I researched Revolution to see what else they had made. I bought Broken Sword I and II on eBay in cheap UK Sold Out Software re-releases, and tried them out in ScummVM to see what they were like.

Broken Sword blew me away. I was impressed with the storyline of Beneath a Steel Sky and the game world that Robert Foster inhabited, but Broken Sword showed me that Revolution was worth every penny of my money as much as the LucasArts of old.

The game opens with our hero, American tourist George Stobbart at a cafe in France. He witnesses a murder, and is soon put on the list of suspects by the police. He meets a journalist named Nico and the two soon realize that the murder was just the tip of the iceburg.

The art of the game is truly beautiful. The animation is fluid, the backgrounds are vibrant, and the characters have a wonderful look that’s not too cartoonish while also being not too realistic. It’s a perfect blend that really adds to the dramatic storyline.

The voiceover work is also excellent. I can still hear George Stobbart’s voice in my head, even months after playing the game. The music is not instantly memorable, but it fits the atmosphere wonderfully.

There is at least one instance where it is possible to die, so saving the game while playing is definitely recommended. I don’t like the save early, save often mentality of some adventures, and luckily Broken Sword is not like that. It seems that the only way to die in this game is to do something that defies common sense.

This game definitely is in my top 10 favorite adventure games list. I’m glad ScummVM introduced me to Revolution, as they have opened my eyes to possibilities beyond the SCUMM. :)

War is one of those card games that is so simple, yet still so fun to play. Two people keep throwing down their top card, and the person with the highest card gets to keep both cards. It’s the “war” aspect that makes it so much fun. When both of you have the same card, it’s war. You throw down two cards face down on top of the war card, and then a card face up. The person who has the highest face card gets to keep all eight cards. This aspect makes it so that it is very hard to know who the winner of the game is going to be. You could have only 10 cards left, but win war several times, and end up winning in the end. The “you never know” aspect of the game is what makes war so much fun. :)