A Penny For The Ferryman
Games From The Depths Of Hell
RON: Lunchtime Of The Damned
Reality On The Norm: Lunchtime Of The Damned
Created By: Ben 'Yatzee' Croshaw
Genre: Adventure
Download Size: 406 KB
System Requirements:
Windows
Davy Jones has a strange hobby - he is interested in magic. Very interested. Some might even say obsessed! Davy and his girlfriend Elandra live in a town called Reality On The Norm. It is a strange town, where anything can (and usually does) happen! So when Davy wants to try out his new spell to raise the dead, you can bet that somehing will go wrong. For starters, Elandra is none too pleased that he has begun the spell without her. He had already drawn the pentagram before she arrived. All that's left to do now is to recite the magic words, but, this being Reality On The Norm, something has gone horribly wrong (surprise surprise). They manage to raise a corpse, sure, but it has no soul. It is now one of the undead... a zombie. It goes by it's instincts alone, forcing Davy and Elandra to flee for their lives. Naturally, Elandra has had enough, and heads of back to school. But Davy knows that the only way to stop the zombie is to restore his soul. He just needs a few spell ingredients... 
Lunchtime Of The Damned is the first in a long line of Reality On The Norm adventure games, and sets of the trend nicely. Who would have thought that a game about raising zombies could be so amusing. Each separate game is like a little short story for you to enjoy, and kudos goes to Ben 'Yatzee' Croshaw for making this first one. It's an important part of RON history. It's a little disappointing that Elandra had so little involement in the game - you don't see her again after the intro. I would have liked if she had helped Davy find the ingredients he needs, or at least been present when Davy restored the soul. After all, they did raise the zombie together. But since this is the first game, maybe Yatzee was unclear at that point, where things would lead. I liked how spells were used as actual inventory items, and hope to see more of that in the future. The bum is a very interesting character, and I love how he can change personalities so easily. It opens up a whole world of possibilities in the RON world. Graphically, the game uses strong, bold colours throughout. Characters and background have quite a cartoony look., which seems just right for RON games I thought the flaming pentagram at the end was particularly impressive. Comments
A great start to the RON games. Sadly, the very open source nature of the world sort of doomed it. Watching such a promising universe slowly drown in an ocean of half-hearted, poorly thought out sequels was a real pity. There are some real gems in the series, mostly early on, but the world became so convoluted that I don't see how anyone can make sense of it at this point. Too bad. RON had real promise in the beginning.
Do you plan to review any more of the Reality on the Norm games? Those and the Larry Vales games were the reason I discovered AGS and started making my own games. Plus you hardly ever hear about them anymore. This review was a nice blast from the past.
Hey Ponch
Thanks for commenting, and I'm pleased you enjoyed the review. I'm very glad RON and Larry encouraged you to make your own games.
Yes, I will definately be reviewing more RON games here, but who knows which one I will do next, hehe.
There's other games I want to review first, but rest assured, there will be more RON games here.
The Ferryman.
