From arcades to handhelds, mobile phones to consoles, 1993's Plumbers Don't Wear Ties brings an unparalleled experience to the world of video games. After the game was critically panned and quietly re-released last spring, the company is re-releasing a special edition of his long-defunct '90s video game system, the Panasonic 3DO. .
For the uninitiated, “Plumbers Don't Wear Ties” was released as an “interactive romantic comedy” game for adults. In the game, players make “Choose Your Own Adventure”-style choices in a series of images presented at a PowerPoint tempo, as John, a struggling plumber on a bicycle, rides his bike on his way to a job interview. He must help woo Jane, a woman he met in the parking lot. What follows is a tale of corruption, Los Angeles action, the narrator's murder, and a happily-ever-after ending, with plenty of his 90s shock humor thrown in along the way.
Released separately for Windows PC and the aforementioned, relatively short-lived Panasonic 3DO home console, in an era before industry-wide game ratings, this adults-only experience may have planted a seed in the minds of readers of 1990s video game magazines. Perhaps they saw the scathing review in PC Gamer's July 1994 issue (which gave the game a 3 out of 100 and called it “entertainment nadir”), or were vaguely intrigued by the fact that it was the only video game sold in the catalog in the back of the magazine with an “18+ Only” warning.
While this style/genre of video game was known and accepted as “visual novels” in Japan at the time, the Americans behind “Plumbers” were unaware of this and came up with the same format through parallel thinking. According to the Good Bad Flicks documentary about the game, included in the new “Definitive Edition” release of the game, “Plumbers” is the brainchild of Michael Anderson, an early internet and digital mapping pioneer in the 70s and 80s. After selling his digital mapping company in the 80s, a lucrative acquisition gave Anderson the time and money to, in his words, “get into trouble.” This was a time of growing interest in “interactive film,” and building on the excitement he felt about previous cutting edge technology, he explored what it would take to challenge the audience-driven movie experience of a cost-effective romantic comedy.
Because full-motion video games didn't have the same crisp picture quality as modern CD-ROM-limited home consoles, Anderson approached the game as a frame-by-frame experiment. He approached potential actors directly, including Jeanne Basone, familiar to wrestling fans as “Hollywood” from the original “GLOW: Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling.”
Bazon told the Times that filming “is like filming a movie where you shoot out of order, and to be honest, if you've ever been on set, you know that the producers and directors You just have to trust, and that's exactly what we did.” Plus, it was a lot of fun to shoot and be on location. His style of filmmaking may not have fully conveyed the fun of being on set to players back in 1994, but he seemed to be having a lot of fun at the time. , perhaps he'll give the game a little more charm 30 years later.
That appeal is something the Limited Run Games team behind Plumbers Don't Wear Ties: Definitive Edition wanted to maximize when reviving the game. Josh Fairhurst, co-founder and CEO of LRG, was instrumental in not only tracking down the rights holders for Plumbers, but also purchasing the IP to make that happen.
“As one of the worst games of all time, I wanted to explore the cause and significance of its existence,” Fairhurst told the Times, adding, “My focus has always been on being as faithful as possible to the original experience. In Plumbers Don't Wear Ties: Definitive Edition, we did our best not to mess with the core of the game. It's supposed to be bad, so I didn't think to make it better. It felt like it missed the point. Instead, we've done our best to faithfully clean and restore the game's image, repair the audio without nullifying its low-budget appeal, and do our best to put the game in context. The game is surrounded by documentary footage, commentary, and additional features. ”
Joe Modzeleski, one of the producers/developers of the new Definitive Edition, felt a range of emotions during the early stages of development. He told the Times: “It was interesting…but then very quickly I started thinking, 'Oh, this is going to be difficult,' because there's nothing attractive here to sell and I can't make a profit.” Because I have to,” he said. ”
Compared to 90s video game cult classics like the controversial “Night Trap” and “Corpse Killer” that Limited Run Games had previously remastered, this wasn't a game that could sell itself on its gameplay. Fellow producer and developer Audi Thorley told the Times that bringing back “Plumbers” with the right elements required a fundamental challenge. “Nothing really survived from this stuff. It was a weird throwaway project from the '90s. No one's going to keep it. This is a problem with the entire video game industry, and since 2005 It's hard to pinpoint this problem on any project because most of what was done before has not been archived, and for 'Plumbers' it was even more so because it was a small project in California.”
Sorry had to work on upscaling the game's massively trained AI. This job involves taking the game's 890 images (all 640 x 480 and indexed with 256 colors) and making them into 4K quality. The reading and reconstruction took her a year to synthesize. and manual touch-up.
So why would any video game player put so much effort into something that is objectively considered bad? Perhaps it's the fanbase, the majority of which have likely never pressed a single button in the “Plumbers” menu until this year. Yes, there is a sequel called “Plumbers Don't Wear Ties”, thanks in large part to the second life the game has had as an Internet meme. In the summer of 2009, longtime YouTube personality James Rolfe dedicated an episode of his series “Angry Video Game Nerd” to “Plumbers Don't Wear Ties”, giving the world perhaps the first extensive video capture of the gameplay and trademark sleazy absurdity.
His 2011 upload quickly became one of the most popular episodes, currently boasting over 9 million views and spawning numerous other reviews and revisits from all corners of the Bad But Good video game fandom. I am. A factory-sealed copy of the original 3DO game sold for $600 on eBay last year. A known existing copy of the PC version was tracked down at Ball State University in 2017, and his subsequent upload of the software to the internet is considered a victory for lost media discovery.
Whether you consider the potential player a “fan” or merely a curious player, the “Plumber”'s track record is proven, and its existence can be a strong argument for preserving it, whether it was an interesting experiment at the time or the absolute worst of the worst.
Fairhurst explained the need for it: “We often see remasters and re-releases of the best games of all time, but few people spend time and resources on the worst games. It may seem odd, but I think the worst games of all time are just as historically important as the best. We need to investigate these and explore why they were bad, what made them exist, and how they were culturally accepted.” He added, “People will always remember 'Plumbers Don't Wear Ties' and want to experience it in the same way. Movie lovers still watch and discuss 'Plan 9 from Outer Space.' Bad games pique our curiosity, and I think there's something to it. I'm honored to be able to bring this game back to life, and I hope people will enjoy and experience it.”
This new experience is giving Plumbers its biggest boost yet. To promote the game's release, Basone appeared at Boston's gaming convention PAX East, meeting with a number of new and old Plumbers fans. Basone told his The Times: “We couldn't wait to update what we thought was lost a long time ago and create something that is available today on all gaming platforms. We're proud of everyone who worked on this game back in 1993. We're very happy that Limited Run Games has decided to release this updated version.” Given that LRG now owns the Plumbers IP, the possibility of a sequel is more likely than ever. It seems that it is increasing. But to this question, Modzeleski laughed and replied, “Yeah, right, but don't encourage it,” to which Sorlie added, “Have you ever played this game?” .