Escape Artists
PodCastle => Episode Comments => Topic started by: Heradel on May 07, 2010, 05:48:41 AM
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PodCastle Miniature 50: Mario’s Three Lives (http://podcastle.org/2010/05/07/podcastle-miniature-50-marios-three-lives/)
by Matt Bell (http://www.mdbell.com/)
Read by Rish Outfield of The Dunesteef Audio Fiction Magazine (http://dunesteef.com/)
Originally published in Barrellhouse (http://www.barrelhousemag.com/word/)
The plumber always dies with the same surprised look on his face, his mouth hanging open as he flies upward through the air before being born again at the beginning of the world. He’s tiny and frightened without his mushrooms and his fireballs, desperately banging his head against blocks, looking for more. Sometimes, between reincarnations, the plumber thinks he senses God trying to decide whether to give him another chance or to just bag the whole thing. He’s scared then, but who wouldn’t be? He prays for continuation and then God says Continue and the music plays that means the plumber will live again. Back in the world, he realizes that the God he senses between deaths is there when he’s alive too, guiding his motions. His triumphs are God’s triumphs but so are his failures. It bothers him that God can fail but he doesn’t show it. He is a stoic little plumber, looking for mushrooms and jumping on turtles. He is not a philosopher, or at least not until after the Princess is safe and he has the time to think things through. Still, sometimes when he’s alive and running or, heaven forbid, swimming, he realizes that the God Who Continues is possibly not the only god there is. Surely, that god isn’t the one who put all the collapsing platforms and strange, angry wildlife everywhere. At first he thinks it’s the Turtle King, the one who captured the Princess and started him on this whole adventure, but then he thinks, Who made the Turtle King? Not God, or at least not his God. Does this prove the existence of the Devil? He doesn’t know.
Rated PG for plumbers, philosophy, and good ol’ fashioned shrooms
(Hey! Look at us! Fifty miniatures!)
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It's always a little disheartening when someone else sells a story that's similar to one you've been trying to sell for about a year.
That said, I found this piece to be pretty well-written, but my issue with it is that I think it was trying to do too much in mapping itself to a set of real-world philosophies. I kept hearing it break through every now and then, and then it got lost in the video game metaphor. However, the way the actual video game part was done was good, and I liked the constant ass references because, let's face it, I'm 12 years old on the inside.
The reading was good, although there were parts that I think could've been paced better -- however, I think that may have been related to editing. I'd like more stories to be read at a faster speed, like this one was; some stories get sooooooooooooooo long because of the reading, and that annoys me if I don't absolutely love the story. (EP's "N-Words" comes to mind.)
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Ha, I loved this. What fun, particularly the revelations about the pre-continue place. I actually liked the real-world intrusions because I felt like it added another dimension to this character who we know only as this little electronic figure. What if he could think? What would he think about? What does he want, and what drives him? Fun questions and fun answers.
Now someone needs to do this for Pacman. :D
(frogger? Q-bert?)
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Pacman's PP territory (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuQsaRYYheM) ;)
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Now someone needs to do this for Pacman. :D
Man and Pack - November 2009 (http://www.mirrorshards.org/2009/11/man-and-pack.html)
Another corner. Another dark hallway. The glimmering gems in the floor no longer tempt me; my pack is full to bursting. They'll do me little good if I never escape this maze. Their luster dissipates quickly at a touch. At least I can tell where I have been already, so that I rarely backtrack.
I grow weak with hunger. Visions of succulent fruit dance before my eyes. I dare not stop. These caves are haunted by ghouls. Only the light of the stones holds them at bay, and that fades with every breath.
There must be an end, mustn't there?
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Cruise Elroy - January 2010 (http://www.mirrorshards.org/2010/01/cruise-elroy.html)
"Explain it again," said the President.
"Er... the sun has a crack in it," said the lead scientist, a sad-faced man with a fringe of gray hair. "It appears to be opening, as though hinged."
"Or like a mouth," put in a dark-haired assistant.
"And that's related to the dark patch behind it? The Inky, you called it?"
"The action seems to have been in response to its appearance, yes."
"And the radio signal?"
"We've decoded it." The assistant pushed a button. The sound poured out: wakka-wakka-wakka.
"Regrettably, sir, it appears that the universe is in need of a Power Pellet."
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Haha, good times.
I just really dig these "spin on video games" stories. I'm not sure why. They amuse me endlessly.
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A plumber jumping on turtles and fighting evil firebreathing lizards? I don't get it. This must be one of those extremely deep literary metaphors that just go over my head. The plumber is the id, and the firebreather is the ego? The turtles are a metaphor for the death on the horizon that you can avoid seemingly indefinitely, but sooner or later you'll get careless and get chomped?
Just kidding. :D This one was fun and silly, and made me wonder why I hadn't written this story. Intelligent video game characters mixed with philosophy, yay! But in the original SMB were there any ice worlds? I don't remember them, but maybe I'm just forgetting. Maybe he was intended to be spanning multiple Mario games.
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Haha, good times.
I just really dig these "spin on video games" stories. I'm not sure why. They amuse me endlessly.
What publication do you edit? I'll send you mine. ;D
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Always good to hear Rish reading something, a lot of talent in vocalizing emotions in that man.
As for the piece, well it was fun. That is about all I can say. When the author started to talk about his existance I think the piece could have been done in a stream of conciousness mode as well, but that would have lost the joke of waiting while god decides to allow the continue.
Good show, lots of fun.
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Haha, good times.
I just really dig these "spin on video games" stories. I'm not sure why. They amuse me endlessly.
What publication do you edit? I'll send you mine. ;D
I am proud to say I'm the founder and Editor-in-Chief of the one and only, multiple Hugo-not-nominated Talia's Reading List. Circulation 1.
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I have to say I was a bit "meh" on this one - it didn't feel like there was much original content, it was just summarizing the gameplay while throwing out the occasional philosophical pondering. Yeah, video games are creepy if you think about them literally, I don't think I needed eight minutes of hearing about it.
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I thoroughly enjoyed this tale. I passed it on to a few die hard old school Nintento gamers who gobbled it up with much praise as well.
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Neat. You know, it didn't occur to me until reading this story just how WEIRD those games were. I mean, a plumber eats mushrooms, gets huge, crushes turtles...hunh? What ARE Japanese game developers smoking? And where can I get some?
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Group me among the unimpressed. I'm not a big fan of this genre of retelling the story of computer games, especially if they don't have any additional layers. This didn't, so it didn't really appeal to me much.
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Much fun! Very much fun. I liked this one a lot.
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By the time i heard "he eats with his ass" i knew this was going to be a bad story, i managed to get half way through before i decided to stop listening. It was really dumb, cliched and unfunny.
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Somebody write a Katamari Damacy story now, please.
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But in the original SMB were there any ice worlds? I don't remember them, but maybe I'm just forgetting. Maybe he was intended to be spanning multiple Mario games.
Yes, they were riffing off of many of them. Some hints were the flying and like you said, the ice worlds. They didn't show up until SMB3.
Minor quibble: Mario uses his fist to break bricks, and his feet to stomp. </nerd>
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Yes, they were riffing off of many of them. Some hints were the flying and like you said, the ice worlds. They didn't show up until SMB3.
This week's Glee had Puck going on about the importance of Super Mario Bros 3, to his girlfriend who couldn't have cared less..
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Somebody write a Katamari Damacy story now, please.
Ooh, good idea!
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I enjoyed it. Short, interesting, fun, didn't outstay its welcome for me: I've never been a big computer games fan for the most part (occasional forays into De Blob on the Wii and GuildWars on the PC aside), but I still liked it.
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(This is only marginally on topic, but relates to a Scattercat post above.)
Most of you have probably seen it already, but if you haven't, check out the front page of Google (http://google.com/) today. (Probably only today...)
Edit, June 2/2010: Now available here (http://www.google.com/pacman/).
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(This is only marginally on topic, but relates to a Scattercat post above.)
Most of you have probably seen it already, but if you haven't, check out the front page of Google (http://google.com/) today. (Probably only today...)
hahaha, rad. And you can play it!!
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(This is only marginally on topic, but relates to a Scattercat post above.)
Most of you have probably seen it already, but if you haven't, check out the front page of Google (http://google.com/) today. (Probably only today...)
That's rad! Thanks, Wilson!
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Cute. At least he wasn't a character from an FPS game like Battlefield or Team Fortress. Getting fragged every 5 seconds of your existence can't be good.
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Cute. At least he wasn't a character from an FPS game like Battlefield or Team Fortress. Getting fragged every 5 seconds of your existence can't be good.
I just read a story with a premise sort of like that... Um, I think in last month's Analog. It was actually a really solid story.
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Cute. At least he wasn't a character from an FPS game like Battlefield or Team Fortress. Getting fragged every 5 seconds of your existence can't be good.
I just read a story with a premise sort of like that... Um, I think in last month's Analog. It was actually a really solid story.
Yeah, that one ( in Analog) was really intriguing and I'm usually not much for stories about video games....I can't remember the name but I've got it around here somewhere....
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A Time for Heroes maybe?