Ben There, Dan That
Ben There Dan That is a hilarious old-school point and click adventure game with the comedy stylings of Day of the Tentacle and Sam and Max Hit the Road. And it's entirely free. That would be enough to get me clicking “Download Now”, but if you're still not convinced, read on.
The art style is charming, truly bizarre and abstract. Poorly drawn characters interact with a colorful but very weird landscape. It's all very silly, which fits the subject matter. The story is about two average British gamers who frequently end up in many ridiculous places. The writing has a very British slant to it, even with a chapter involving “AmericaLand” full of jokes about us Yanks and our terrible beer. It's great writing, the course of the game gave me several side splitting moments.
Not only are the puzzles fairly good, they're straightforward enough that I rarely got a “What the hell where they thinking” vibe from it. And if you don't get it, the developers give a very inventive spoiler free walkthrough on their site. It consists of a letter written by the hyperactive and inarticulate main character about the events in the game.
Why You Should Check This Out: This game is true to the spirit of old-school LucasArts Adventure Games. The writing is top notch and hilarious. The puzzles are pretty good and the developer gives you a spoiler free walkthrough if you're stuck. The art is suitably zany and just fun to watch. It's the length of an old-school adventure game yet it's completely free.
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How about a link to the aforementioned site?
Edit: Looks like good fun to me, will check it out after work.
Heh, got in a hurry, good catch. Thanks.
"Use ActiveX — it’s the PBR of client-side web technology." - hipstergrammers
"Try to offer a free dessert to the universe, to truth. You will fail." - Yelping with Cormac
I've played this one actually. It is indeed good, and has plenty of adventure game in-jokes to entertain the nostalgic.
Steam 3DS: 2019-9672-3387
Aristophan wrote:
Ahhh, good. I was looking for something to follow up my season 1 pass to Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People. And from the singular screen you've provided, I love the art.
Been meaning to play this for a while but never got round to it...it shall be downloaded forthwith.
3DS: 4983-4918-2993 | Backloggery : stevenmack -> | My GOTY2012 Contenders (so far): (1) RE:Revelations
Thanks, hadn't heard of this one.
And what terrible beer? Bud and Coors aren't beer, it's water with some alcohol mixed in. Like vitamin water for drunks.
MilkmanDanimal wrote:
NSMike wrote:
http://steamcommunity.com/id/garion333
"Use ActiveX — it’s the PBR of client-side web technology." - hipstergrammers
"Try to offer a free dessert to the universe, to truth. You will fail." - Yelping with Cormac
Is it supposed to be totally silent? Getting no sound of any kind from it?
Elewis17 wrote:
I know it's all in good fun, but the meme about poor American beer always bother me. We have some pretty fantastic brews here: Sam Adams, Shiner, Abita, Blue Moon, etc...
The problem is that the cheapest beers available are bud or coors and so by default they are the most popular. I've lived abroad, Spain most recently, and their cheap beers taste as bad our do. In fact the "hip" club kids will drink Bud they way some drink Heineken over here. My point is that if Britain or some other snooty beer country sold twelve packs at six bucks a pop you'd see the majority of people drink that over the much finer alternatives.
Just my 2 cents ...
Many Bothans died to bring us this post...
"Use ActiveX — it’s the PBR of client-side web technology." - hipstergrammers
"Try to offer a free dessert to the universe, to truth. You will fail." - Yelping with Cormac
What gets me is that many beers which are actually good in their country of origin are terrible in the US because they're brewed using a different formula for US markets (if the label of a 'foreign' beer says "bottled in Canada" anywhere on it then don't bother). Take Stella Artois for example. It's one of the strongest beers around in Europe but is indistinguishable from Coors and such in the US. This is why I'm never really bothered by the US stereotype--it's pretty accurate, unless you're fortunate enough to live in an area where microbrews are available (ie. the blue states).
"Use ActiveX — it’s the PBR of client-side web technology." - hipstergrammers
"Try to offer a free dessert to the universe, to truth. You will fail." - Yelping with Cormac
Yeah, if you have a Soundblaster you need to set it to port 220, IRQ 7 and DMA 1.
Whoops, old adventure game flashback there, sorry.
Steam 3DS: 2019-9672-3387
Aristophan wrote:
Just completed this. Chuffed to bits.
Steam ID: http://steamcommunity.com/id/nyles
Favorite puzzle: Grim Fandango -- the metal detector
Not to prolong the beer conversation on a gaming site, but I live in Colorado so let's just say that even in ultra conservative Colorado Springs there are at least six microbreweries. Denver. Forget about it.
MilkmanDanimal wrote:
NSMike wrote:
http://steamcommunity.com/id/garion333
I keep getting an error when I try to install it. "The cabinet file 'disk1.cab' required for this installation is corrupt".
Any workarounds or mirror sites?
"But 2004 might be ancient for a teenager, with their hippin' and the hoppin' and the bippin' and the boppin', they don't know what the jazz is all about." - Gravey
Only because my name is Dan.
I have not played an adventure game in quite a while, and this really hit the spot. I admit I did have to consult the hints one time, but it was otherwise quite intuitive and fun. Also, real American beer comes out of the Pacific Northwest breweries and is not composed primarily of urine.
TheArtOfScience wrote:
Jonman wrote:
I quite liked it. I had to refer to the hints as well as search their forum and Google to figure out a few of the puzzles, but most of them were quite nice and surprising. I liked the art style and the humor was quite good. Somehow I didn't get the double pun in the title and thought it was Been There, Dan That! until the very end when it clicked that it was Ben There, Dan That! and that finished the game of wonderfully. Many good memories, especially the Ant super hero and the group of jaded gamers.
Love this feature, keep up the good picks!
Sounds very promising. I'll be giving it a spin as soon as I get home.
viva non est vivere sed valere vita est
This brought back memories.
Really amusing dialogue, great fun.
And for once, I didn't get so stuck I had to consult a walkthrough.
Great game.
"I haven't supped of Buffy, nor have I supped in any wise during the absence of Firefly. When Firefly returns again in glory, then shall I sup at the table of Whedon."-Fedaykin98
X-Box Live: Uberstein
Just started playing this, very good so far.
And the beer thing is mainly because every pub in England sells Budweiser, but brewed inside England - so we're pssing in our own vats on that one.
well i guess i’m a bit late to the party. but anyway, thank you for making me find this wonderful little game, which reminds me of my very first encounters with games in general. ben there dan that provided me with five hilarious hours of classic gaming, on an otherwise very boring sunday.
I found the game to be engaging at first, but the huge, dialogue font threw me off quite a bit - I had to sit far away from the monitor for it not to be an eyestrain trying to read so much dialogue against the brightly colored background. Got frustrated at times with getting stuck on what to do, but I was far too stubborn to check the hints. Otherwise really fun, just wish I could get over my text hangup.
I really wanted to like this game, and certain aspects of the gameplay were quite charming - similar to the Sierra/lucasarts experience of my younger days. (I really liked the nod to MM in the beginning).
I second that! Oh Pyramid, oh Mac n' Jacks, oh Elysian...this is divine.
"And thus did it come to pass, as was foretold, that the picture thread became like unto the spider thread...there was much gnashing of teeth and lamentations. Dogs lay down with Cats. Bears began riding sharks and lo, there was war." -Oilypenguin
Finally buckled down and played this game, and very much enjoyed it. The puzzle I got stuck on the longest was probably the very first one as I was getting used to the game mechanics, but after that I flew right through it without using any hints, although I was tempted towards the end. It's a very charming game, I really liked the dialogue and the puzzles, and genuinely laughed at a lot of the references, like gordan freeman, sam and max, and the death of the adventure genre. If there's anyone still teetering on the edge, just download it. It's free and highly enjoyable.
3DS 1461-6216-3113
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