LogFAQs > #966322324

#38: Dum-Dum

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/9/5/AAA-H0AADaW7.jpg

One of the games from last decade that I played too late to include on my list, but would have, was Hypnospace Outlaw. Hypnospace Outlaw was a loving tribute to the anarchy and visual chaos of the late 90's internet in which you controlled the entire game through a virtual OS, your desktop being transformed into that of Hypnospace's own design. It is fully immersive in a way that few games are able to be; by taking you completely out of your own computer and into the fantastical simulacrum of another, it allows you to play pretend as though you really are in that OS, your very own computer taking the form of something from an alternate universe. Hypnospace Outlaw is great; it takes the concept of browsing an alternate universe internet in a fictional OS and gets really weird and creative with it, making for a fun literal-point-and-click adventure game.

Dum-Dum isn't as good as Hypnospace Outlaw, but for someone who's suddenly looking for more experiences in the genre of 'fake OSes', it's a real treat nontheless.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/9/6/AAA-H0AADaW8.jpg

Instead of the late 90's internet, Dum-Dum is instead a love letter to the operating systems of the mid-80's; in particular, Windows 1.0, though there's some Apple II influence in here as well. I think this is a game best experienced with little spoilers, since it's a little mystery/puzzle game with some fun twists and turns, but the basic gist is; you're a user of the HOGO OS 1985 edition, and through the use of the system's limited online functionality, you stumble into a vast corporate conspiracy which it is unfortunately up to you to solve with your dum-dum brain.

The big star here, of course, is the fake OS that is central to this game; the HOGO OS. Based off of the earlier versions of Windows - before 95, at the very least - booting up Dum-Dum forcibly full screens you into the game and into a fictional OS that would be more than 35 years old today, totally immersing you in the latest computer technology of 1985. Cyan and magenta abound, simple functionalities like a word processor or a clock seem state of the art, and everything has the feel of something like an elaborate toy rather than a modern computer. HOGO OS comes with lots of fun little gizmos to play with; just browsing its simple games and apps, LARPing being a child using an OS for the first time, is really half the fun of this game. You can't do too much with the apps, and most of the games are too simple to have much fun with, although a couple of exceptions exist - the surprisingly challenging puzzle game Hogoball, and one game that's basically a Wordle clone before Wordle! You can even literally write real code in Basic using this fictional OS, although I don't know Basic well enough to do anything more than print out "Hello World."

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/9/7/AAA-H0AADaW9.jpg

The actual story and the puzzles you have to solve are pretty fun themselves, too. The premise of the game is that the computer geniuses behind the conspiracy are so smart that they'll see any countermeasures coming - except for those thought up by the dumbest person alive, which happens to be you, making you the perfect unwitting operative for this mission. I found myself just a bit disappointed by this premise, as the game never quite lives up to the idea of "outwitting a smart person with dumb ideas" - most of the game as a puzzle game is really fairly straightforward and just requires straightforward smarts to figure out, and rarely does the game ever demand a truly stupid solution that would make you feel clever for thinking of something as stupid as possible. That said, the way the game weaves its story and its puzzle solutions into Dum-Dum's various programs and games is really clever, and surprisingly robust - the game took me over 5 hours to beat, which is longer than I expected out of a game like this.

There's a certain sort of nostalgia I have for old computers that Dum-Dum really effectively taps into. I prefer the much more functional computing technology we have now, of course, but Dum-Dum harkens back to a time when computers were just sort of fun, weird little gadgets that felt like their own little worlds, and I do kind of miss those days sometimes. Everything from the color schemes to the design philosophy to the lack of quality of life (only three windows) feels really spot on here, and perfectly evokes the feeling of an era I wasn't even alive for - my first Windows OS was 3.1. If Hypnospace Outlaw was appealing to you, I'd also check out Dum-Dum; it's a fully worthy companion piece, and it's a pretty obscure one, so I'm happy to signal boost it. And if anyone's played any other games kind of in this 'fake OS' vein, let me know, because I'm low-key obsessed with the concept.

Next up: This game has more reviews on Steam than Dum-Dum, but I still think it's the most obscure game on my list, bar none. It's a Sokoban-style puzzle game from late 2021. You're not going to guess it unless you've seen me playing it on Steam.