Stauf's Mansion: The 7th Guest and more

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The 7th Guest, The 11th Hour, The 13th Doll, and also other Trilobyte games and spinoffs!

Mods4Ever FAQ here

Join our Discord here https://discord.gg/Hss5cJg We also have Stream Detective set up in there if you want to elect to receive notifications of people playing these games on Twitch

Related Lemmy communities:

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Here's a list of different places you can chat about this series of games. We're a bit divided, but the fans are out there!

[email protected] - This Lemmy community, you're here right now! If you need a Lemmy account then go here and make the account. (Sorry, my server is too weak!) If you already have a Mastodon account (and you're feeling brave/technical) then you can put @[email protected] into the search box there and follow that account.

https://discord.gg/Hss5cJg - Stauf's Mansion Discord. Pretty active with a good number of fans. ALSO HAS Stream Detective so you can find people streaming these games on Twitch! Very fun to watch people fumble through the puzzles for the first time and chat with them, just be careful with backseating. Make sure you assign yourself the roles to get notifications for Stream Detective, ask in there if you need help.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/the13thdoll - Facebook group. Lots of fans for all the games here, very active.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1508196223903874 - Facebook group "Everything The 7th Guest and 11th Hour", newly created.

https://mastodon.social/tags/the7thguest - Mastodon hashtag #the7thguest, you can follow hashtags on Mastodon so they automatically show up on your home feed, very handy! Also check the hashtags for #the7thguestvr, #the11thhour, and #the13thdoll and whatever else you want.

https://www.gog.com/forum/the_7th_guest_series - GOG Forum. Mostly tech support questions but there are a lot of fans there.

https://www.gog.com/forum/the_13th_doll_a_fan_game_of_the_7th_guest - again a GOG Forum but for The 13th Doll. Still mostly tech support questions.

https://www.twitch.tv/search?term=the%207th%20guest - Twitch categories so you can watch people playing the games live and chat with them (just be careful with backseating). Open each one and click Follow to add the game to your followed categories list. But honestly you're better off joining the Discord and using the Stream Detective inside there.

https://twitter.com/hashtag/The7thGuest?f=live - Twitter hashtag #the7thguest. Unfortunately you can't follow a hashtag on Twitter, so you gotta just check it manually. Also check hashtags for #the7thguestvr, #the11thhour (although there's some noise in there), #the13thdoll, and any other game you want. (Make sure to switch to the "Latest" tab instead of "Top")

https://www.reddit.com/r/7thguest/ - Reddit community. Not very active, but with a good post or crosspost there could be people from outside the subreddit finding it. Edit: currently locked and I can't post to it.

Any other places with fans of the series? Let me know! I'm mostly hanging out here and in Discord, but I'll probably see you if you post to any of the others!

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The soundtracks to the seminal CD-ROM titles "The 7th Guest" and "The 11th Hour" by George "The Fat Man" Sanger, reimagined as industrial rock. A project over 2 years in the making, made with the full support of The Fat Man himself, and appreciative nods from the founders of Trilobyte Games, Graeme Devine and Rob Landeros. Featuring album artwork by Trilobyte's original 3D artist Rob Stein III (RIP).

Free download on Bandcamp: https://error47.bandcamp.com/album/soups-on-selections-from-staufs-infernal-jukebox

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3021sM-1lY&ab_channel=Error47

Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/6i414HkXlPmgZD2rRV2qwv

Listen to the original soundtracks on The Fat Man and Team Fat's Bandcamp page: https://thefatmanandteamfat.bandcamp.com

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A recent let's play from someone who knows the game pretty well!

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The 1990s was a time of rapid change in the tech powering video game graphics. From pre-rendering, to ray casting, to texture-mapped polygons, it seemed that a major innovation was around every corner.

However, the pathway towards graphical realism hasn't always been clear. Let's explore one such forking path: full-motion video. With CD-powered consoles and home PCs arriving in the 90's, FMV-powered games became viable at last, promising the world... but only delivering oddity after oddity.

  • 00:00 - Introduction
  • 7:19 - Night Trap
  • 23:50 - The 7th Guest
  • 31:07 - Frankenstein: Through the Eyes of the Monster
  • 36:12 - Corpse Killer
  • 41:12 - Phantasmagoria
  • 1:09:29 - Gabriel Knight 2: The Beast Within
  • 1:42:45 - Phantasmagoria 2: A Puzzle of Flesh
  • 2:11:36 - Bad Mojo
  • 2:28:14 - Harvester (Revisited)
  • 2:47:39 - Conclusion
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9Eg52o7Yp0

In 1995, George "The Fat Man" Sanger composed this tune for The 11th Hour. It was supposed to be the main theme, like "The Game" had been for The 7th Guest, but George couldn't get the lyrics to work. So he scrapped it and wrote "The Final Hour" instead, which became The 11th Hour's theme song. This tune instead became the music heard during the train puzzle in The 11th Hour.

For our album "Soup's On: Selections from Stauf's Infernal Jukebox," George went back to his old notes and finished the lyrics. Here, for the first time, is the original theme song to The 11th Hour, with vocals by our very own Jackie Stewart.

Listen to the original on The Fat Man's Bandcamp page: https://thefatmanandteamfat.bandcamp.com/track/train-the-lost-puzzle-piece

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Good news, soup fans! Our reimagining of the 7th Guest and 11th Hour soundtracks — "Soup's On: Selections from Stauf's Infernal Jukebox" — will release digitally on Oct. 31. It will be available on Bandcamp and streaming services. Happy Halloween!

One of our most audacious tracks on Soup's On is this medley of "walking around music" from The 11th Hour. This one combines everything from jazz and swing to blistering industrial metal. https://youtu.be/EXPH_wKw1h8

Soup's On releases on digital platforms Oct. 31, 2024!

https://musicians.today/@error47

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There's now a music video from this! From https://lemmy.mods4ever.com/post/321

George "The Fat Man" Sanger - Guitar and Bass VI

Adam Holzman - Moog, Combo Organ, "Theremin"

Leo Lamas - Bass

Fernando Lamas - Guitar

Bob Hoyt - OB-3 Organ

Bruce Sharp - Drums

Loscoronados.com

Written by George Alistair Sanger (C)1997 (P)2024 Big Fat, Inc. Published by Fat Manor Publishing, BMI.

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This special performance of "The Game" from The 7th Guest features the original composer, The Fat Man himself, along with talent from San Diego's Mid-City Community Music group making their recording debut, and an incredible solo from legendary keyboardist Adam Holzman who has performed with Miles Davis, many other jazz legends, and on his own renowned recordings. Scarlet Moon Halloween Volume III is available on all digital storefronts and streaming platforms today.

From: https://music.apple.com/us/album/the-game-the-7th-guest/1769672604?i=1769672609

https://scarletmoonrecords.bandcamp.com/album/scarlet-moon-halloween-volume-iii

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thematic_Apperception_Test

Noticed this during a stream today, with some interesting text in the game.

(wow, they talked about online patients in 1998?)

source: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2265314014?t=2h15m28s

Btw this is one of the most entertaining games to watch on Twitch and chat with the streamer.

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New video from The Cellar [Taigen Moon]

In 1998, after FMV had already been buried, the last hero of the failed genre hit the shelves... and no one played. And those who did, didn't like it. This is Tender Loving Care, with John Hurt!

Family Friendly Edition of this video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cr09faqcU-w

(The original upload is age restricted, so I've created this new, family friendly version! Watch it with your kids!)

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Excerpt from a well-known TV show hosted and created by Stewart Cheifet featuring George "The Fat Man" Sanger, the same year he was composing for Putt-Putt Saves The Zoo. It discusses one of his biggest contributions to game audio, "Fat Labs" certification, and Putt-Putt Goes to the Moon makes an appearance.

Full episode can be found here: https://archive.org/details/CC1218_greatest_games

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Join The 7th Guest creators Graeme Devine, George “The Fat Man” Sanger, and (remotely) Matt Costello as they discuss stories from creating the original CD-ROM horror classic, as well as the sequel, The 11th Hour. Led by Phantasmagoria 2‘s own Paul Morgan Stetler, you’ll hear tales about writing the puzzles, working with the actors to create haunting FMV scenes, and ask your own burning questions!

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PS4 version: https://store.playstation.com/en-us/product/UP6325-CUSA45771_00-0881145802075151

PS5 version: https://store.playstation.com/en-us/product/EP6324-PPSA19312_00-0862542480799380

Of course the game is still available on Steam, GOG, Switch, Android, iOS...

Note that this is DIFFERENT from the VR game. The title is misleading, the VR game is not a port it is a reboot with slightly different story and totally different puzzles.

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I found this cool old website for The 7th Guest, The 11th Hour, and T7G3: The Collector. The author is "Bones the Caretaker". The section of the website for The Collector says "Copyright site-design and written content by Paul van der Meer 2003".

Wait a minute, I know that name! Paul van der Meer is the director of The 7th Guest VR and Project Lead at Vertigo Games!

I don't know how old this website is, but it doesn't exist anymore. Luckily the Wayback Machine captured most of it (missing a bunch of images).

Unfortunately the Wayback Machine is a little slow, so navigating around the house in this way is a bit of a pain, and the split screen isn't sized properly for modern screens.

So I made this tweaked version that can be easily self-hosted or downloaded, and it runs much faster.

Viewable on http://t7g.mods4ever.com/

If you're lazy, the easiest way to see the whole site is to go to the map page and middle click every link. T7G Map and T11H Map

Source code at https://github.com/Die4Ever/bones-7guesthomepage

If you have any improvements to contribute you can make a pull request.

Wayback Machine: https://web.archive.org/web/20041127023227/http://uk.geocities.com/veluan2002/

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The Cutscenes are out of order in the Game. Here is the Cutscenes in order as told in the book, The 7th Guest: A Novel by Matthew J. Costello. Cropped the black borders with only a small loss of quality.

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Trilobyte:

Trilobyte mourns the passing of Robert Stein III who left this world on January 17 of this year.

Rob was an integral part of the innovative creation of The 7th Guest and The 11th Hour. We were incredibly lucky that he came into our lives, bringing his great talent with him. He will always be respected and admired by anyone who had the good fortune of having known and worked with him.

Jonathan Sposato:

rest in peace brother. robert stein III was the first ever art director at banana republic back when their catalogs were hand drawn by him in a marin county studio. he was also the co-creator of the epic hit game “7th guest” and it’s even bigger followup “11th Hour.” i first met him when i was a young teen making computer games, where he was my slightly older colleague at ‘Virgin Mastertronic’, an offshoot of richard branson’s ‘Virgin Records.' he taught me so much about ‘suggesting detail where there isn’t any.’ years later after college when i started my first games company, i hired rob to be our senior art director, where he routinely regaled us with stories about his run-in’s with special effects greats phil tippett or ray harryhausen. he once lived amongst one of the most untouched pre-industrial humans, the trobriand islanders, during a once every 75 year solar eclipse because he simply wanted to experience what they would experience. he traded drawings for food and lived among them for months. it was said that the founders of banana republic mel and patricia ziegler hired him on the spot, sans portfolio, because he was the very vision of the wanderlust adventurer they sought to sell the idea of. the son of a decorated fighter ace and cold war spy robert k. stein, rob was born for adventure. when i had occasion to go to africa, he once warned; “if your flight has to divert to uganda, do not get off. my dad and i were once held at gunpoint by idi amin’s henchmen in entebbe…”

thru out the years, rob and i ended up working together on and off in parallel careers at microsoft where he designed almost all the iconography for Windows Vista, while i putzed around in the consumer division and xbox. a few years later i tried to recruit him to be a part of my startup, he refused. after selling that one i gave him another shot and he refused again. when i visited him in hospice he laughed; “goddamn it sposato you should have done a better job talking me into those!” to which i replied; “robert you’ve lived 3 lives in the span of my one. no regrets man. no regrets.” and he truly had none.

after a brave fight, rob succumbed to cancer on Jan 17th of this year. he is survived by his beautiful, delightful, and very funny wife Summie Aoki-Stein, an accomplished flight attendant speaking multiple languages who has many great stories of her own. i am grateful my friend was in great care by such a loving partner. his ashes are with the beach and sea in his favorite spot on earth; kailua beach in oahu, hawaii. you can visit rob virtually thru his gorgeous illustrations at https://www.instagram.com/robertsteiniii?igsh=MW1lNGo4NHJsamhibQ==

you will be missed robert...

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the highlights are some pictures of Robert Hirschboeck as various characters https://rhstauf.tripod.com/photo2.html

and an interview from 1996 done over AOL chat, in character as Henry Stauf https://rhstauf.tripod.com/interview.html

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a lot of these are from 1991/1992 when the game was just called "Guest", with camera angles that you can't see in the actual game, and higher resolution renders

pretty cool stuff

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Similar to the strategy guide for The 7th Guest I posted a while ago: https://programming.dev/post/9424024

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This shout-out filled episode features Matt Costello on the curious craft of writing for games. A prolific novelist, his career spans the length of our industry, from the genre-defining 7th Guest to huge hits like Disney Universe and DOOM3. A peek behind the Curtain of a lesser known, but fundamental aspect of #gamedev

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We left a surprise for The Fat Man on this track...

For the track "The Final Hour," we asked George "The Fat Man" Sanger's daughter, Gwendolyn Sanger, to record the "voice mail" sample... and not tell her dad. This is his reaction video of listening to the track for the first time, not knowing that's his daughter doing the voice.

Follow their Bandcamp so you know when you can buy this album! https://error47.bandcamp.com/

https://error47.band/

They're also on Mastodon! @[email protected]

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if you want spoiler free hints, check my video instead https://youtu.be/T5rBc_T8x2g

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The composer for Vertigo Games' VR reimagining of The 7th Guest sat down with us for an hour to compare notes.

Listen to Jonathan's soundtrack for The 7th Guest VR: https://musicbyjonathan.bandcamp.com/album/the-7th-guest-vr-original-soundtrack

Follow Jonathan on Twitter: https://twitter.com/jonathan_vdw

Jonathan's website: https://musicbyjonathan.com

Check out Soup's On - our 4xLP reimagining of the soundtracks to The 7th Guest and The 11th Hour: https://kickstarter.com/projects/twoguysrecords/soups-on-music-from-the-7th-guest-and-the-11th-hour-on-vinyl/

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