Software:Fester's Quest

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Fester's Quest
Developer(s)Sunsoft
Publisher(s)Sunsoft
Composer(s)Naoki Kodaka
Platform(s)Nintendo Entertainment System, PlayChoice-10
Release
  • NA: 1989
  • EU: September 14, 1990
Genre(s)Run and gun / Adventure
Mode(s)Single-player

Fester's Quest (also known as Uncle Fester's Quest or The Addams Family: Uncle Fester's Quest) is a video game for the Nintendo Entertainment System based on the 1960s television series The Addams Family. It was released in 1989 in North America and 1990 in Europe.[1]

Story

One night, a UFO beams up all the residents of the city where The Addams Family lives; this is except for the members of the family, whom Grandmama, the only one to predict the invasion, cast a protective spell on their home beforehand. As the father of the family, Gomez Addams, must continue to guard the home from invaders, it is up to Uncle Fester to use his gun and save the townspeople from the aliens.[2]

Gameplay

Fester's Quest is a shoot 'em up game[3] that takes place in three overhead areas (the streets, the sewers, and the UFO platform) and six buildings where the hallways are viewed from a 3D perspective.[4]

Along the way, Fester encounters other members of the Addams Family in seven houses (plus the Addams mansion via a secret path through the trees behind the mansion): Thing (three times), Wednesday, Gomez, Morticia, Grandmama, and Pugsley, all of whom help him by giving him different weapons and items. Use of one particular item, the Noose, will summon Lurch to destroy all enemies on the screen. The game uses Blaster Master's overhead shooter engine.[citation needed]

Fester must travel through the city sewers to reach areas that are otherwise inaccessible due to aboveground obstacles. He may enter certain buildings, which transform the game from its standard overhead view into a 3D mode of play akin to a dungeon crawl. Five of these buildings each house an enormous Alien Boss character, which upon defeat will supply Fester with a puzzle piece and a picture of the alien's UFO, and refill all of his items. After defeating a boss, Fester will leave the building and be unable to backtrack through it to previously visited areas. Once all five bosses are defeated, Fester must board the UFO and defeat one last boss in order to stave off the invasion.

The North American release has a feature that makes Fester's bullets collide with walls and objects, making it more difficult to hit enemies compared to the European release.[5]

Reception

Initial and retrospective reviews
Review scores
PublicationScore
AllGameStarStar[6]
CVG56%[7]
EGM5/10[3]
Nintendo LifeStar[9]
Nintendo Power4.45/5[lower-alpha 1]
ONM57%[11]
Total!14%[13]
Super Gamer34%[14]
VideoGameStarStarStarStarStar[15]

The French magazine Player One stated that Fester's Quest was great for fans of the franchise, although did suffer from short game length, "motley" visuals, and occasional slowdown.[12] Paul Glancey of CVG, on the other hand, dismissed the game for its "flickery and unimpressive" visuals, lack of humor, and "unrewarding" mindless shooting gameplay consisting of constantly-respawning enemies.[7] Critics from Electronic Gaming Monthly felt that while the game had alright graphics and "awesome" and "very good" music, its difficulty was "unbalanced" as it consisted of too-little real action and variety, very-easy mini-quests, and "next to impossible" bosses.[3]

GamesRadar ranked it as the 73rd worst game ever made. The staff criticized its excessive difficulty and lack of comicality.[16] IGN ranked Fester's Quest 45th on its Top 100 NES Games list.[17] Fester's Quest has sold one million copies.[18]

Notes

  1. ↑ Nintendo Power gave Fester's Quest two 4.7/5 scores for graphics/sound and theme/fun and two 4.2/5 scores for play control and challenge.[10]

References

Citations

  1. ↑ "Fester's Quest Release data". GameFAQs. http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/nes/data/563413.html. Retrieved 2009-08-30. 
  2. ↑ Instruction manual 1989, p. 2.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Steve; Ed; Donn; Jim (July 1989). "Fester's Quest". Electronic Gaming Monthly 1 (2): 11. 
  4. ↑ Instruction manual 1989, pp. 3, 9.
  5. ↑ "The Frustrating Weapons and TWO Versions of Fester's Quest - Behind the Code". YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZc3S0gSEg0. Retrieved 2022-11-14. 
  6. ↑ Alan Weiss, Brett. "Fester's Quest". AllGame. Archived from the original on November 16, 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20141116142645/http://www.allgame.com/game.php?id=1191&tab=review. Retrieved October 1, 2020. 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Glancey, Paul (November 1990). "Fester's Quest". http://amr.abime.net/review_27047. 
  8. ↑ J.M. Destroy (September 1990). "Fester's Quest" (in French). Joystick (8): 111. 
  9. ↑ Griffin, Bryan (October 29, 2010). "Fester's Quest Review (NES)". Nintendo Life. https://www.nintendolife.com/reviews/2010/10/festers_quest_retro. Retrieved October 1, 2020. 
  10. ↑ "Fester's Quest". Nintendo Power (6): 48–49. May 1989. 
  11. ↑ Merrett, Steve; Radion Automatic (December 1992). "Fester's Quest". Nintendo Magazine System (3): 117. 
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Murdock, Matt (October 1990). "Fester's Quest" (in French). Player One (2): 59. 
  13. ↑ James (October 1993). "Fester's Quest". Total! (22): 80–81. https://archive.org/details/total-issue-22/page/n79/mode/2up?q=Sculptured+%22Super+WrestleMania%22. Retrieved September 5, 2021. 
  14. ↑ "A-Z of Games". Super Gamer (4): 109. July 1994. 
  15. ↑ "Fester's Quest" (in Latin). VideoGame 1 (6): 24–25. August 1991. 
  16. ↑ "The 50 worst games of all time". GamesRadar. 2013-04-15. http://www.gamesradar.com/worst-games-all-time/. Retrieved 2013-12-05. 
  17. ↑ Moriarty, Colin. "45. Fester's Quest". Ziff Davis. http://www.ign.com/top-100-nes-games/45.html. Retrieved 28 November 2016. 
  18. ↑ Fenris, Kid (30 November 2014). "Interview: Fester's Quest". Archived from the original on 28 November 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20161128201213/http://www.kidfenris.com/2014/11/interview-festers-quest.html. Retrieved 28 November 2016. 

Bibliography

  • Fester's Quest instruction manual. Sunsoft Corporation of America. 1989. pp. 1–13. 
  • MobyGames is a commercial database website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes over 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms.[1] Founded in 1999, ownership of the site has changed hands several times. It has been owned by Atari SA since 2022.

Features

Edits and submissions to the site (including screenshots, box art, developer information, game summaries, and more) go through a verification process of fact-checking by volunteer "approvers".[2] This lengthy approval process after submission can range from minutes to days or months.[3] The most commonly used sources are the video game's website, packaging, and credit screens. There is a published standard for game information and copy-editing.[4] A ranking system allows users to earn points for contributing accurate information.[5]

Registered users can rate and review games. Users can create private or public "have" and "want" lists, which can generate a list of games available for trade with other registered users. The site contains an integrated forum. Each listed game can have its own sub-forum.

History

Logo used until March 2014

MobyGames was founded on March 1, 1999, by Jim Leonard and Brian Hirt, and joined by David Berk 18 months later, the three of which had been friends since high school.[6][7] Leonard had the idea of sharing information about computer games with a larger audience. The database began with information about games for IBM PC compatibles, relying on the founders' personal collections. Eventually, the site was opened up to allow general users to contribute information.[5] In a 2003 interview, Berk emphasized MobyGames' dedication to taking video games more seriously than broader society and to preserving games for their important cultural influence.[5]

In mid-2010, MobyGames was purchased by GameFly for an undisclosed amount.[8] This was announced to the community post factum , and the site's interface was given an unpopular redesign.[7] A few major contributors left, refusing to do volunteer work for a commercial website.{{Citation needed|date=June 2025} On December 18, 2013, MobyGames was acquired by Jeremiah Freyholtz, owner of Blue Flame Labs (a San Francisco-based game and web development company) and VGBoxArt (a site for fan-made video game box art).[9] Blue Flame Labs reverted MobyGames' interface to its pre-overhaul look and feel,[10] and for the next eight years, the site was run by Freyholtz and Independent Games Festival organizer Simon Carless.[7]

On November 24, 2021, Atari SA announced a potential deal with Blue Flame Labs to purchase MobyGames for $1.5 million.[11] The purchase was completed on 8 March 2022, with Freyholtz remaining as general manager.[12][13][14] Over the next year, the financial boost given by Atari led to a rework of the site being built from scratch with a new backend codebase, as well as updates improving the mobile and desktop user interface.[1] This was accomplished by investing in full-time development of the site instead of its previously part-time development.[15]

In 2024, MobyGames began offering a paid "Pro" membership option for the site to generate additional revenue.[16] Previously, the site had generated income exclusively through banner ads and (from March 2014 onward) a small number of patrons via the Patreon website.[17]

See also

  • IGDB – game database used by Twitch for its search and discovery functions

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Sheehan, Gavin (2023-02-22). "Atari Relaunches The Fully Rebuilt & Optimized MobyGames Website". https://bleedingcool.com/games/atari-relaunches-the-fully-rebuilt-optimized-mobygames-website/. 
  2. ↑ Litchfield, Ted (2021-11-26). "Zombie company Atari to devour MobyGames". https://www.pcgamer.com/zombie-company-atari-to-devour-mobygames/. 
  3. ↑ "MobyGames FAQ: Emails Answered § When will my submission be approved?". Blue Flame Labs. 30 March 2014. http://www.mobygames.com/info/faq7#g1. 
  4. ↑ "The MobyGames Standards and Practices". Blue Flame Labs. 6 January 2016. http://www.mobygames.com/info/standards. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Miller, Stanley A. (2003-04-22). "People's choice awards honor favorite Web sites". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. 
  6. ↑ "20 Years of MobyGames" (in en). 2019-02-28. https://trixter.oldskool.org/2019/02/28/20-years-of-mobygames/. 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Plunkett, Luke (2022-03-10). "Atari Buys MobyGames For $1.5 Million". https://kotaku.com/mobygames-retro-credits-database-imdb-atari-freyholtz-b-1848638521. 
  8. ↑ "Report: MobyGames Acquired By GameFly Media". Gamasutra. 2011-02-07. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/game-platforms/report-mobygames-acquired-by-gamefly-media. 
  9. ↑ Corriea, Alexa Ray (December 31, 2013). "MobyGames purchased from GameFly, improvements planned". http://www.polygon.com/2013/12/31/5261414/mobygames-purchased-from-gamefly-improvements-planned. 
  10. ↑ Wawro, Alex (31 December 2013). "Game dev database MobyGames getting some TLC under new owner". Gamasutra. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/game-dev-database-mobygames-getting-some-tlc-under-new-owner. 
  11. ↑ "Atari invests in Anstream, may buy MobyGames". November 24, 2021. https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2021-11-24-atari-invests-in-anstream-may-buy-mobygames. 
  12. ↑ Rousseau, Jeffrey (2022-03-09). "Atari purchases Moby Games". https://www.gamesindustry.biz/atari-purchases-moby-games. 
  13. ↑ "Atari Completes MobyGames Acquisition, Details Plans for the Site's Continued Support". March 8, 2022. https://www.atari.com/atari-completes-mobygames-acquisition-details-plans-for-the-sites-continued-support/. 
  14. ↑ "Atari has acquired game database MobyGames for $1.5 million" (in en-GB). 2022-03-09. https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/atari-has-acquired-game-database-mobygames-for-1-5-million/. 
  15. ↑ Stanton, Rich (2022-03-10). "Atari buys videogame database MobyGames for $1.5 million". https://www.pcgamer.com/atari-buys-videogame-database-mobygames-for-dollar15-million/. 
  16. ↑ Harris, John (2024-03-09). "MobyGames Offering “Pro” Membership". https://setsideb.com/mobygames-offering-pro-membership/. 
  17. ↑ "MobyGames on Patreon". http://www.patreon.com/mobygames. 
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