The robot has been destroyed. The island has been destroyed. Soon the world as we know it will be destroyed. Excuse me, I'm leaving to be with my family.
"Thanks Admiral, due to your poor timing, everyone dies. While spending time with your family be sure to mention how it was you that killed them. 2,000 hours of testing didn't indicate a problem here?"
I'm now envisioning an entire family of wife, two kids and dog, ALL of whom speak and behave in this totally stoic, monotone style. Like, even the dog casually and precisely enunciates "woof."
Just found this - LOL- I am one of the people credited in this game unfortunately. I can give you all hours of stories about this company and how these crappy games were put together. Thank you for the ‘review’ made my night! P.s. I have the original disks and docs in storage
Funfact: The admiral was also in Friday the 13th Part VIII, and judging from his IMDB it looks like he's had a decent career over the years with small-time gigs, as recently as 2018!
I can confirm, the manual really only vaguely helps tell you how to make use of the weapons, otherwise it does pretty much nothing to improve matters. I remember it taking at least 4 attempts, even with the manual in hand, to kill one thing.
The 6 year old plot is the hardest I've laughed at anything in months, no exaggeration. Ross is a genius, or at the very least, I suspect maybe he was like that as a 6 year old.
Infernal969, put that: "Ah, an alien spacecraft. Now this is beginning to make sense." on the front, with: "You can't get robbed by blue aliens if you don't see them!" on the back.
Back in the mid 90's, my family had someone take care of our animals while we were on vacation. Apparently, her boyfriend came over and was using our computer. When we returned home, he had stolen my recently purchased copy of Maabus I had left on the computer desk. Wow, did I dodge a bullet that day...
I only had my copies of Super Mario RPG and FF3(6) stolen. Though I did find my copy of Chrono Trigger my friend had claimed had been broken accidentally by his little brother, buried under a pile of his clothes in his closet... I stopped leaving things out and letting friends come over after that... But fuck you kid I got my Chrono Trigger back! I also got my FF3 back, though I nearly had to beat the shit out of another kid before a mutual friend intervened. Amazing he magically had my game he kept swearing he didn't have. XD Never knew what happened to Super Mario RPG though. And I don't think I'd have gotten into a fistfight over maabus... And of course I don't have either FF3 or Chrono Trigger anymore. I think my brother lent(fucking gave!) them away... I do still have my Earthbound cart though...
@@planescaped My copy of Earthbound was stolen out of my Super Nintendo when I was letting a roommate play it in a shared living space. I will never not be bitter about that.
You know that's what I like about you Ross. A game can be completely terrible, filled with all sorts of issues and generally a nightmare to deal with, yet that somehow doesn't stop you from getting immersed in them. Kudos Ross, you're a hardier gamer than most of us.
thats what gets me, he goes to almost no end to play incredibly niche games, and most importantly still enjoys them. He's actually inspired me to go back to old games i gave up on, and believe it or not its been some of the most interesting gaming experiences ive had.
It really does make it way more unique of a video when no matter how bad it is he tries to get as immersed as possible in it, and goes to as many lengths as possible to try and understand the game fully.
I like how Ross briefly breaks into rhyme at 10:54: _Well I find one - from two-thousand eight!_ _Looks like I'm not the only one who's playing games this late_ _We didn't get a manual, but we do get a walkthrough_ _- and a map, too!_ _I'm glad, because the navigation on this was a bit of a mess_ _Where you might go north, then end up facing west_
@@bigstreambo1333 The notification I got for you leaving this response just made me come back and realize I forgot the possessive apostrophe on "game's"...
I imagine the drone pilot driver, who became an homeless 20 years later, savior of the world but still unknown, not famous at all, who tracks down the retirement house where the admiral lives, and he stalks the admiral. Like “hey asshole you tell me now what about the aliens, the ship, the temple and all!” “I don’t know! Here two dollars leave me alone I am jogging!”
10:54 Well, I find one. From 2008. Looks like I'm not the only one who's playing games this late. We didn't get a manual but we do get a walkthrough. And a map too! I'm glad, because the navigation on this was a bit of a mess, where you might go north to end up facing west. You're quite the poet, Ross. Well played.
The Doom door sound effect is some public domain noise that the Doom guys used, I don't think they made it. You can hear it in movies and shows occasionally. Always a fun catch.
Maabus? Ok so I looked it up. Apparently Maabus is a transliteration of Hebrew (Strong's Hebrew 3965) it literally means barn or granary. What that has to do with a game about robots vs aliens I don't know.
Maabus was my first lesson in not trusting trailers. (if you haven't seen it, look up the Maabus trailer... it's truly special) 20 years later, I still regret buying this game. Nice to finally see the ending.
"In order to enhance game challenge, saving is disabled on this CD" Yeah, the devs probably fucked up the saving routine and couldn't get it to work for the third disc so they tried to hide it.
"Maabus appears to be beatable, but it would take a long time and be really not worth it figuring it out on your own." My 10 year-old self would have loved to known this. Thanks for playing this Ross, I've never met anyone who has ever even heard of this game, much less beaten it. I had to wait till my mom went to the store to beat it because she got mad at all the sirens at the end and made me turn it off...
Skardavnelnate did the walkthrough! Hah. I remember hanging out with him, Platter, DarkTalon, and all the other guys over a decade ago on the gamefaqs Planescape Torment board. Good times, and a weird connection. I still haven't gotten around to playing Sanitarium... But yeah, Skar did walkthroughs for the most obscure and weirdest of games. I had no idea how he figured out the things he did. Though I do recall he'd post topics in the boards asking the community things. I wasn't very helpful.
I was about to say, I saw him being referenced in the fixpack I used for PS:T, and then seeing him making a walkthrough for this game of all things... what a weird connection.
This looks like it belongs on a 90s TV show. You know, the type of thing played by the protagonist while they wrestle in an over the top manner with a game controller. A fake game put together by the show's creators who want something video-gamey but have never actually played a computer game.
I've just scanned and added the manual for this to the Internet Archive - just search for "MAABUS manual". It clears up some stuff to do with the weapons, including that they'll randomly not work depending on the environment or how close the enemy is o.O
Sounds like the manual was writen to excuse poor programming/bugs. Much like "Dr. Robotnik's nefarious traps" in Sonic 3 that can only be escaped by pressing reset on the console...
That seems to be how a lot of us started, myself included. I finally decided to check this series out not too long ago and am watching it all over again, right after the first time. Love it!
THIS IS THE GAME! OMG! OK, OK... this is why I love your channel dude. Way back fucking when in the 90's, on my old 75mhz HP machine, I found a trailer to a video game on the disk of a game I owned. Just hiding in a folder. I wanna say it was on one of the disks for Riven, but I could easily be mistaken. It's one of those memories lost to the haze of years of drug abuse. Anyways... it's one of those trailers that was terribad... like so really bad. Bad cheesy 90's techno, really cheesy graphics. Like even for the time I was like "ewwwwwwww". But the trailer stuck in my memory. And I've hunted for it. I could never find it. Like at least twice a year I'd spend hours scouring the internet for what game it was. AND THEN YOU! YOU BEAUTIFUL MAN! You do a game dungeon on it! This is why I love this series... you do videos on the weird off the wall nostalgia things from my past. I thought you were the best for your GD on 'Quarantine'... but this one tops the cake dude! Hell, there's been times in the past on this channel that you started reviewing a game and I was like "is this it? I don't know... is this that game? .... nope, nope it's not." (Rama was one of the titles that had me thinking it might be) Cause I had this feeling in my gut you knew the game... that you had this up your sleeve some where. And you did! You have no idea how excited I am right now. like... this fucking made my month, MADE MY YEAR! like... when fanboys found out that 'Lord of the Rings' was being made into a movie, or that Star Wars was getting new sequels, and fanboys riot in the streets... which at the time I didn't understand. I understand now. That's how I feel right now! ... Best channel ever!
But Ross, I was pickpocketed by a blue alien just the other day! I made sure to look away from him until I could be sure he'd left, and he still somehow managed to grab my wallet from behind! I dunno how he did it without me seeing him do it! This makes no sense!
Oh, man. Ross-boss, you made me so happy with this episode. Maabus is one of my first games that I've played and it completely blew me away - and it totally baffled me. I kept exploring the map and shooting monsters with different weapons. If I remember correctly, not all weapons can kill all the monsters. For some of them you need to be specific. ALso, the 3rd cd/area simply terrified me because of the lack of a save feature. It did have a manual and if you want it, I think I can send you a scanned copy - just let me know. One more thing - since I see you are reviewing some pretty old and obscure titles (I thought I was the only one in a 1000 km radius that played Maabus, back then) - do try and give it a go to Quantum Gate. It's FMV with some clicky things, but like Maabus, it totally dumb-founded me and retained a special place in my memory.
Great thanks! SabinStagem has given the link I was going to suggest. I don't know if I will ever play this game but I like the idea that old games are available in their entirety online.
I have the game and manual too. I was too dumb to figure this game out when it released. So it has been sitting in a box ever since. After seeing this video, I'm glad I gave up so easily. Thanks for showing me what I missed Ross.
So, if the timer still ticks down during the credits, what happens if you time it so that you die, then the timer runs out? Do you get a double game over?
I can safely say that Ross Scott is one of the few you tubers that can imitate a kids voice exceptionally well without it sounding as cringing as possible. Now I want ice cream.
Is it possible that there is a better ending that explains more if you beat the game on one of the shorter timers? I wouldn't put it past a game like this to make you play it on hard mode to get all the answers.
The videos are stored as AVI video files on the CDs and can be played separately. IIRC there was nothing special which you couldn't see in Ross's video.
Ross's Game Dungeon is pretty much a condensed view of Ross wasting his life so we don't have to. Kudos Mr. Ross you deserve all the ice cream in the world.
+LosEagle you are so wrong! First of all, a happy 24 minutes can still make your entire day, and secondly I've watched every episode like 20 times. They have sort of become a sleepy-time ritual for me.
I think an award for the most highly qualified Admiral is justified. He seemed to know almost immediately that those were Egyptian hieroglyphics, and also that that was an alien space ship. He must be an Admiral-Egyptologist-Xenologist
This game needs a sequel, and the entire purpose of the game isn't to save the planet, but to find out what the admiral wanted to tell us later about the aliens.
The 6 year old imitation had me in stitches. I remember playing this game about a year after its release and also needed a walkthrough to finish it. I always found the storyline a bit contrived too.
I have never laughed so hard at a video game ending. Talk about the butterfly effect. The first enemy destroys your mech, then the island gets destroyed, then the whole planet gets destroyed. Damn. I've seen many "bad" endings to video games, but I never saw something showing that you screwed up to such epic proportions. "Excuse me. I need to be with my family."
"The robot is destroyed. The island has been destroyed. Soon the World as we know it, will be destroyed. Good night, son. I'm leaving to be with my family."
Brilliant, just brilliant! :D My guess is that the word Maabus is an acronym of some kind - Mobile Armored Anti Bio-terrorism Utility Suit for instance. The game came out at the time when the "guide a drone" genre was trying to become a thing. There's at least a dozen of more or less big budgeted games (especially timed adventures) of this kind from that mid to late 90s era. I never ever got that style of gameplay. And the game is a true obscurity, unless you've tracked down information about every 90s FMV game known to man.
See Ross, you are raising the bar with every new episode and making me say "this one is the best" BECAUSE OF YOU I'M HAVING TRUST ISSUES WITH MYSELF GODDAMNIT! Guess I'm gonna have to do another dark ritual to curse your apartment with mold.
threemoo Actually, radiation IS dangerous for robots since it corrupts semi-conductors inside them and such, thus equipment begin to malfunction. I remember reading news which said that robots which were sent to deal with Fukushima were dying very quickly because of such high radiation. So this makes sense.
And in addition to the already mentioned electronic malfunctions, deadly high radiation levels can heat up metal pretty quickly, which probably isn't good for robots in general.
I remember playing an FMV game where I remotely controlled a drone in a dangerous area to hopefully avert a catastrophe. ...I could've sworn Iron Helix took place in space, though.
I remember back when game demos and trailers came on CDs provided by game magazines. One such trailer was Maabus, which had some awesome 90s dance music included. 20-ish years later, I finally tracked down what music was played. It was Think About The Way by Ice Mc. It's on youtube
This game is such a perfect example of experimentation era dos games. The game feels like it was designed to be frustrating because the only thing the devs were thinking of was if it was interactive and if it was unique
I like how game dungeon became a meme dungeon itself. Digging in years worth of videos results backwards in timeline you can witness of meme evolution and rediscover it origins. And NOW things are beginning to make sense.
another great game dungeon. your dedication to playing through and preserving the history of these games is admirable. it always amuses me how much work had to have been put into these games and even if they're not great, to lose them to history would be a huge loss. keep it up, ross!
Man, this brings back memories. I used to watch the trailer for this game and its Eurodance/Reggae music track ALL the time. It came on a multimedia disc with some other games, some pix files (or were they pic files?), some bikini photos, and some short music clips. There were a few free games on the disc, too.
Holy crap. I remember finding a trailer for this game buried in the directory of a magazine demo disk around 97ish. I've been wondering what the game was for over 20 years! Mystery finally solved!
"Ah, an alien spacecraft. Now this is all beginning to make sense." I did a spit-take, not gonna lie. Especially because it wasn't making any damn sense to me!
I was 10 years old, a close friend of my father had a computer store and had a copy of this game. I could see it on the shelf every time I went to the store, then one day it was gone. Later it reappeared, The man said to my dad that it had been sold, but the owner returned it and wanted his money back. Then he sold it twice again as used, still the game was returned to the store. So he thought it could be nice as a gift for his friend’s son, me. I was young but I could sense he was trying to get rid of this game. When I got it it had no manual left whatsoever but I found inside the box a paper with one word written down, “Maaballs”. I installed it, played a little, figured out it was a piece of shit and tossed it into the trash bin.
Well the thing is you can get lucky, this felt more random / them trying to figure out what they were doing. "Doesn't respect your time" needs to be far more deliberate.
Maabus was one of the worst investments in my life. Got a mitsumi cd ROM drive for my 486/66 and needed something to test drive it. Unfortunately I got tricked in buying this turd by the box art. I think it cost almost 100 German marks at the time. Translates to at least $250 in 2020 Dollars. God damn was I pissed.
5:33 NOW WAIT A FUCKING SECOND The Game Over credits theme was used in one of the Russian VHS intros. So that's where it came from. Or did Maabus use it from some music library? ua-cam.com/video/KWDFIjRjs2s/v-deo.html - go to 0:22
i like how the admiral says "now things are beginning to make sense" while the "unidentified" bar is fully filled
To be fair, the Admiral *did* say there would be more later.
@@notinspectorgadget I heard it as "More Liquor!" and was fully satisfied with that answer.
15:41 since this is currently the top comment
@@TheZombini Now things are truly beginning to make sense.
Make sense
The robot has been destroyed.
The island has been destroyed.
Soon the world as we know it will be destroyed.
Excuse me, I'm leaving to be with my family.
PlusEqualMinusK cirino has no family only Ice and mean words.
Now where have I heard that name before...
"Thanks Admiral, due to your poor timing, everyone dies. While spending time with your family be sure to mention how it was you that killed them. 2,000 hours of testing didn't indicate a problem here?"
Oooooh, how spooky. This Admiral sounds like he worked for the Obama administration, as a Canadian contractor / consultant.
I'm now envisioning an entire family of wife, two kids and dog, ALL of whom speak and behave in this totally stoic, monotone style. Like, even the dog casually and precisely enunciates "woof."
Ah, a new Game Dungeon. Now things are beginning to make sense.
More later.
It's later. Where is my more?
@@Yotrymp not later enough.
It's later. Where is my more?
@@kindkindred still not later. More on this later.
Just found this - LOL- I am one of the people credited in this game unfortunately. I can give you all hours of stories about this company and how these crappy games were put together. Thank you for the ‘review’ made my night!
P.s. I have the original disks and docs in storage
Will someone put this guy in touch with Ross?
Did anyone actually claim the slot rewards?
Now I’m curious
i would really love to hear about your experience. like, this seems like a departure for the company. how did it come to be?
We have so many questions! D:
I love how intensely severe the admiral is in the game over screen.
"Excuse me, I'm leaving to be with my family."
He could get angry at you but he'll rather spend his last time with his loved one instead. It's beginning to make sense
More on that later.
Who named a mountain "family"?
Aleksandr Koslosky oh har har, you're so observant.
When you swallow that blackpill.
Note: We have disabled saving on disc 3. There's no technical issue, we're just trying to screw with you. Have fun!
Decades later, Steel Wool decided this design choice would be gucci to base their final hour portion for Sister Location.
Funfact: The admiral was also in Friday the 13th Part VIII, and judging from his IMDB it looks like he's had a decent career over the years with small-time gigs, as recently as 2018!
@@bearlytamedmodelsr.i.p.
Well one of the actors on rama was also on friday the 13th
I keep thinking it's Tommy Lee Jones in the thumbnail
Ah, Friday the 13th Part VIII and a decent career. Now things are beginning to make sense. More later.
@@KingLich451don’t worry he lives on as a fan meme in the comments of Ross’s other videos. It starts to make sense…
From what I recall about the manual in my box for the game, it doesn't make the game experience much better, haha. What a bizarre thing.
Wow, I never knew you watched this!
Lazy Game Reviews is groovy.
Yayy, LGR! So, like...you and Roses...what's up wit dat?
I can confirm, the manual really only vaguely helps tell you how to make use of the weapons, otherwise it does pretty much nothing to improve matters. I remember it taking at least 4 attempts, even with the manual in hand, to kill one thing.
Ross's Game Reviews.
"In the name of the (unnamed) country, we thank you."
"... So hurry up home and tell us all aboot your adventures, Eh?"
cheers bud
"Excuse me, I'm leaving to be with my family."
That. Was. *Amazing*.
"I'm escaping to the _one_ family that hasn't been corrupted by -capitalism- aliens"
@@nibblrrr7124 Spayce!
The "6 year-old plot" section at the end was my favorite part. Funny stuff, good job Ross.
I want my ice creamed.
The 6 year old plot is the hardest I've laughed at anything in months, no exaggeration. Ross is a genius, or at the very least, I suspect maybe he was like that as a 6 year old.
He didn't mispronounce pterodactyl. My immersion... broken.
Ah, this plot was written by a 6-year-old. Now things are beginning to make sense. Definitely no more later.
"YOU CAN´T GET ROBBED BY BLUE ALIENS IF YOU DON´T SEE THEM!"
I really want that on a shirt.
Same. Come on Ross, let us give you our money!
Along with "Ah, an alien spacecraft. Now this is beginning to make sense."
Infernal969, put that: "Ah, an alien spacecraft. Now this is beginning to make sense." on the front, with: "You can't get robbed by blue aliens if you don't see them!" on the back.
And another shirt with the blue mantis alien, and a big fat question mark next to it.
I've actually compiled a short list of Game Dungeon quotes that I think would make good shirts. There are just so many good lines.
Back in the mid 90's, my family had someone take care of our animals while we were on vacation. Apparently, her boyfriend came over and was using our computer. When we returned home, he had stolen my recently purchased copy of Maabus I had left on the computer desk. Wow, did I dodge a bullet that day...
I only had my copies of Super Mario RPG and FF3(6) stolen.
Though I did find my copy of Chrono Trigger my friend had claimed had been broken accidentally by his little brother, buried under a pile of his clothes in his closet... I stopped leaving things out and letting friends come over after that... But fuck you kid I got my Chrono Trigger back! I also got my FF3 back, though I nearly had to beat the shit out of another kid before a mutual friend intervened. Amazing he magically had my game he kept swearing he didn't have. XD
Never knew what happened to Super Mario RPG though. And I don't think I'd have gotten into a fistfight over maabus...
And of course I don't have either FF3 or Chrono Trigger anymore. I think my brother lent(fucking gave!) them away... I do still have my Earthbound cart though...
Did he leave a note saying "excuse me I'm leaving to be with my family"
@@planescaped My copy of Earthbound was stolen out of my Super Nintendo when I was letting a roommate play it in a shared living space. I will never not be bitter about that.
@@satans_scrilla4844 When you lack cash and want something, petty theft is often the most optimal course of action.
@Ethan Ansell I would beat you up for questioning this man, but I'm uhh on probation or something.
I need a "You can't get robbed by blue aliens if you don't see them" tshirt.
Get me one too!
You know that's what I like about you Ross. A game can be completely terrible, filled with all sorts of issues and generally a nightmare to deal with, yet that somehow doesn't stop you from getting immersed in them. Kudos Ross, you're a hardier gamer than most of us.
thats what gets me, he goes to almost no end to play incredibly niche games, and most importantly still enjoys them. He's actually inspired me to go back to old games i gave up on, and believe it or not its been some of the most interesting gaming experiences ive had.
@@gamingphone7201 I’m curious, what games did you go back to?
It really does make it way more unique of a video when no matter how bad it is he tries to get as immersed as possible in it, and goes to as many lengths as possible to try and understand the game fully.
I like how Ross briefly breaks into rhyme at 10:54:
_Well I find one - from two-thousand eight!_
_Looks like I'm not the only one who's playing games this late_
_We didn't get a manual, but we do get a walkthrough_
_- and a map, too!_
_I'm glad, because the navigation on this was a bit of a mess_
_Where you might go north, then end up facing west_
Either his delivery was so perfectly dry I couldn't notice or he really didnt mean to do that and I'm not sure which is better
MC MOLD
XD
Dr. Seuss's game dungeon
see it's like poetry, it rhymes.
The end of the game is just the hook for the games sequel. Maabus Bacon teaches typing.
3 years late but holy shit that's a God level joke
@@bigstreambo1333 The notification I got for you leaving this response just made me come back and realize I forgot the possessive apostrophe on "game's"...
@@outsider344 You have failed us.
I also enjoy this joke.
what i dont get it
"More on that later..."
It's been twenty years, Admiral! When is "later"?!
TheBlues32 you’re just the robot guy. The more is in the hands of top officials.
*"Later"*
I imagine the drone pilot driver, who became an homeless 20 years later, savior of the world but still unknown, not famous at all, who tracks down the retirement house where the admiral lives, and he stalks the admiral. Like “hey asshole you tell me now what about the aliens, the ship, the temple and all!” “I don’t know! Here two dollars leave me alone I am jogging!”
@@TonyFf986 Your drone pilot is just that Aliens guy from the History Channel.
10:54
Well, I find one. From 2008.
Looks like I'm not the only one who's playing games this late.
We didn't get a manual but we do get a walkthrough.
And a map too!
I'm glad, because the navigation on this was a bit of a mess,
where you might go north to end up facing west.
You're quite the poet, Ross. Well played.
Im sure it was unintentional..but hes kinda a savant genius in many way soo..yeah GO TEAM RAINMAN!
The Doom door sound effect is some public domain noise that the Doom guys used, I don't think they made it. You can hear it in movies and shows occasionally. Always a fun catch.
Uva Prima they did make it (specifically bobby prince) but it's public domain regardless
Oh, my bad then. Wasn't aware of the specifics.
It's even listed on TV Tropes as "Doom Doors".
Both of the sounds Marathon's elevators make too: I've heard them in at least Black Mesa and Quake 2 as well after playing Marathon.
@@lionocyborg6030 Marathon did have it's own door sounds tho.
Ah yes, the classic self destruct button right next to the manual and storage buttons that requires no key or confirmation to use.
'An Excellent Self Destruct Button'
Maabus?
Ok so I looked it up. Apparently Maabus is a transliteration of Hebrew (Strong's Hebrew 3965) it literally means barn or granary.
What that has to do with a game about robots vs aliens I don't know.
6 year old picked up a dictionary, found a word that sounded cool for his game.
More on that later.
Mabus is also a character in the writings of Nostradamus, which is why he appears in lots of religious conspiracy theories as an antichrist figure.
Maybe it's an alien barn?
Maabus was my first lesson in not trusting trailers. (if you haven't seen it, look up the Maabus trailer... it's truly special)
20 years later, I still regret buying this game. Nice to finally see the ending.
Robert Seale thank you
cant imagine how expensive it was at the time considering it was 3CDs
Why on earth is the trailer almost five minutes long?!
@@thefallofhousedenari It showed more than half of the game too lmao
I was wondering where that "2,000 hours of testing" comment came from
"In order to enhance game challenge, saving is disabled on this CD"
Yeah, the devs probably fucked up the saving routine and couldn't get it to work for the third disc so they tried to hide it.
“Well… screw it, it’s a feature now.”
*original release of Security Breach intensifies*
Maybe it was lazyness. But to me it seemed like just a crazy person who had access to script monkeys and a weird vision.
"Maabus appears to be beatable, but it would take a long time and be really not worth it figuring it out on your own."
My 10 year-old self would have loved to known this. Thanks for playing this Ross, I've never met anyone who has ever even heard of this game, much less beaten it.
I had to wait till my mom went to the store to beat it because she got mad at all the sirens at the end and made me turn it off...
Skardavnelnate did the walkthrough! Hah. I remember hanging out with him, Platter, DarkTalon, and all the other guys over a decade ago on the gamefaqs Planescape Torment board.
Good times, and a weird connection. I still haven't gotten around to playing Sanitarium...
But yeah, Skar did walkthroughs for the most obscure and weirdest of games. I had no idea how he figured out the things he did. Though I do recall he'd post topics in the boards asking the community things. I wasn't very helpful.
I contacted him yesterday about it and he seemed very happy that someone used his walkthrough. Maybe he'll post here :).
I was about to say, I saw him being referenced in the fixpack I used for PS:T, and then seeing him making a walkthrough for this game of all things... what a weird connection.
This looks like it belongs on a 90s TV show. You know, the type of thing played by the protagonist while they wrestle in an over the top manner with a game controller. A fake game put together by the show's creators who want something video-gamey but have never actually played a computer game.
I've just scanned and added the manual for this to the Internet Archive - just search for "MAABUS manual". It clears up some stuff to do with the weapons, including that they'll randomly not work depending on the environment or how close the enemy is o.O
Sounds like the manual was writen to excuse poor programming/bugs.
Much like "Dr. Robotnik's nefarious traps" in Sonic 3 that can only be escaped by pressing reset on the console...
Came to Accursedfarms for Freeman's Mind, stayed for Ross's Game Dungeon. Definitely the most interesting game based series I've seen on UA-cam.
That seems to be how a lot of us started, myself included. I finally decided to check this series out not too long ago and am watching it all over again, right after the first time. Love it!
THIS IS THE GAME!
OMG!
OK, OK... this is why I love your channel dude.
Way back fucking when in the 90's, on my old 75mhz HP machine, I found a trailer to a video game on the disk of a game I owned. Just hiding in a folder. I wanna say it was on one of the disks for Riven, but I could easily be mistaken. It's one of those memories lost to the haze of years of drug abuse.
Anyways... it's one of those trailers that was terribad... like so really bad. Bad cheesy 90's techno, really cheesy graphics. Like even for the time I was like "ewwwwwwww".
But the trailer stuck in my memory.
And I've hunted for it. I could never find it. Like at least twice a year I'd spend hours scouring the internet for what game it was.
AND THEN YOU!
YOU BEAUTIFUL MAN!
You do a game dungeon on it!
This is why I love this series... you do videos on the weird off the wall nostalgia things from my past. I thought you were the best for your GD on 'Quarantine'... but this one tops the cake dude!
Hell, there's been times in the past on this channel that you started reviewing a game and I was like "is this it? I don't know... is this that game? .... nope, nope it's not." (Rama was one of the titles that had me thinking it might be) Cause I had this feeling in my gut you knew the game... that you had this up your sleeve some where.
And you did!
You have no idea how excited I am right now.
like... this fucking made my month, MADE MY YEAR!
like... when fanboys found out that 'Lord of the Rings' was being made into a movie, or that Star Wars was getting new sequels, and fanboys riot in the streets... which at the time I didn't understand.
I understand now.
That's how I feel right now!
...
Best channel ever!
lordofduct yeah, this is a best channel ever
Hey, did you saved file for this trailer, in any chance?
Sorry, no, I don't have the file for said trailer.
With full sincerity, I'm happy for you, dude.
HAHA NIICE!
Try to get off drugs dude. I like your comment still
'Excuse me. I'm leaving to be with my family'
That's one of the creepiest game over's ever.
'Make peace with your god, you f**ked up son!'
But Ross, I was pickpocketed by a blue alien just the other day! I made sure to look away from him until I could be sure he'd left, and he still somehow managed to grab my wallet from behind! I dunno how he did it without me seeing him do it! This makes no sense!
Damn blue aliens always stealing stuff, I mean those yellow aliens are so much nicer giving me random devices that I don't really understand.
Like a translator in a place where you have no one to talk to... 'cept the admiral, who has all the charisma of a mushy vanilla wafer.
Hey, at least the translator isn't _wrong_. Could have ended up with something like "they have to make underwear for salad".
@Bobby Corwen
How racist. Most blue aliens are just normal people.
Fucking blue aliens, always stealing my shit, taking our jobs, and all that.
LOL what a terrific game!
if you check again youll notice there was actually 3 writers to make the plot of a 6 years old
CLASSIC
It was a competition. The winner got ice cream in the red bowl.
They paid all of the writers so instead of picking the best story they just combined all 3.
Maybe those writers were six year olds?
Oh, man. Ross-boss, you made me so happy with this episode. Maabus is one of my first games that I've played and it completely blew me away - and it totally baffled me. I kept exploring the map and shooting monsters with different weapons. If I remember correctly, not all weapons can kill all the monsters. For some of them you need to be specific. ALso, the 3rd cd/area simply terrified me because of the lack of a save feature. It did have a manual and if you want it, I think I can send you a scanned copy - just let me know. One more thing - since I see you are reviewing some pretty old and obscure titles (I thought I was the only one in a 1000 km radius that played Maabus, back then) - do try and give it a go to Quantum Gate. It's FMV with some clicky things, but like Maabus, it totally dumb-founded me and retained a special place in my memory.
oberstul even if Ross doesn't want it you should still upload it to the
sites that host game manuals.
@John Bunday - sure, mate, no probs. Do you have a link?
Great thanks! SabinStagem has given the link I was going to suggest. I don't know if I will ever play this game but I like the idea that old games are available in their entirety online.
He almost certainly would want it
I have the game and manual too. I was too dumb to figure this game out when it released. So it has been sitting in a box ever since. After seeing this video, I'm glad I gave up so easily. Thanks for showing me what I missed Ross.
So, if the timer still ticks down during the credits, what happens if you time it so that you die, then the timer runs out? Do you get a double game over?
I was wondering the same.
I thought about testing it, but my instincts tell me there's a 95% it goes to zero and nothing else happens.
Grody Pineman the world was destroyed... twice
I really wanna know this.
Ross leaves to be with his family.
I...legitimately like the Admiral. I shouldn't, but damn it, he's entertaining.
why shouldn't you😊
"I did it, I won, I won!!" He honestly sounded so excited it was adorable
Damn, the most powerful first enemy in *any* game. You fail, the whole world is gone.
Thanks for the victory code, Ross. Can't wait to get my Microforum CD-ROM collection featuring 20 different titles in the mail!
I can safely say that Ross Scott is one of the few you tubers that can imitate a kids voice exceptionally well without it sounding as cringing as possible.
Now I want ice cream.
RIP to the Admiral IRL
What? The actor died 2 years ago? 😢
Is it possible that there is a better ending that explains more if you beat the game on one of the shorter timers? I wouldn't put it past a game like this to make you play it on hard mode to get all the answers.
That sounds highly plausible for a game like this.
The videos are stored as AVI video files on the CDs and can be played separately.
IIRC there was nothing special which you couldn't see in Ross's video.
Knowing how notoriously evil pc games of the 90’s were, i wouldn’t have been surprised
Ross's Game Dungeon is pretty much a condensed view of Ross wasting his life so we don't have to. Kudos Mr. Ross you deserve all the ice cream in the world.
I'm wasting my life watching this though. And I'm enjoying the waste.
NEW GAME DUNGEON
my day is made, bless you Ross
your day is made only for those 24 minutes
+LosEagle you are so wrong! First of all, a happy 24 minutes can still make your entire day, and secondly I've watched every episode like 20 times. They have sort of become a sleepy-time ritual for me.
He is gaming Jesus
I'm not the only one! Game Dungeon is so nice to fall asleep to.
OnexTwoxTree For some reason, Ross voice is also soothing, except when he really have to shout.
Maybe Maabus is the name of the island. We'll just have to wait for the sequel.
"The island of Alora Tora does not appear on any regular map."
Nope. Maybe...the name of the crashed alien ship? Nobody knows.
the alien ship, now it's starting to make sense
More on that later.
I'm glad to have witnessed the ultimate PC video game. My life is now complete.
14:42
"The volcano is aboot to erupt."
Hockey sticks indeed.
I think an award for the most highly qualified Admiral is justified. He seemed to know almost immediately that those were Egyptian hieroglyphics, and also that that was an alien space ship. He must be an Admiral-Egyptologist-Xenologist
I lost it with the last award. You made my day, Ross.
Playing a drone and has a slot machine, are you sure this ain't a newer game?
...How can you have an "Unidentified" detector? How can you detect something if you have no idea what it is?
Ask a particle physicist
Presumably, its receiving a signal that is anomalous/un-signed (meaning without identification)
"I'm detecting some stuff in here. Maybe even a thing."
We finally figured out how to measure unknown unknowns.
The "Unidentified" detector should be re-labeled "Ninjas". You can never assume there are not any ninjas.
I love how the map behind the Admiral has no Baltic Sea. Scandinavia and the Baltic States are now connected by Land Bridge.
lmfao his 6 yr. old impression is great
Maabus? May-booce?
... Mahboobs.
Captain Jackass FunnY oriGinAl and aMaZinG
Mah dude
Ma boy. Then you beat the game and the admiral wonders what's for dinner.
Caboose?
@@psychodrummer1567 The robot you play as must be Freckles.
I've immensely enjoyed your channel for over half a decade now. Thanks, Ross!
This game needs a sequel, and the entire purpose of the game isn't to save the planet, but to find out what the admiral wanted to tell us later about the aliens.
The 6 year old imitation had me in stitches. I remember playing this game about a year after its release and also needed a walkthrough to finish it. I always found the storyline a bit contrived too.
"Oh, you get to send in a robot, I guess you can't really die" *earth explodes*
Honestly, I now get more excited for Ross's Game Dungeons than I did when he was releasing Freeman's Mind...
I have never laughed so hard at a video game ending. Talk about the butterfly effect. The first enemy destroys your mech, then the island gets destroyed, then the whole planet gets destroyed. Damn. I've seen many "bad" endings to video games, but I never saw something showing that you screwed up to such epic proportions. "Excuse me. I need to be with my family."
That’s one chill admiral. Nothing seems to faze him, even the imminent destruction of the human race.
The ultimate PC video game award sure fits it like a glove. I also lost it at the kid's description of the game.
The "I want ice cream" line was the best ending
I absolutely love Ross's unbridled joy at 6:39
Love the Serious Sam music for the credits.
I NEED that whole ending speech Ross had about how the 6-year-old made the story on a t-shirt.
I wish I could pay the admiral to read bedtime stories to me. Such a calming voice.
"The robot is destroyed. The island has been destroyed. Soon the World as we know it, will be destroyed. Good night, son. I'm leaving to be with my family."
Looks at big box copy of Maabus on shelf. Hangs head in shame.
You really have one?
Brilliant, just brilliant! :D My guess is that the word Maabus is an acronym of some kind - Mobile Armored Anti Bio-terrorism Utility Suit for instance. The game came out at the time when the "guide a drone" genre was trying to become a thing. There's at least a dozen of more or less big budgeted games (especially timed adventures) of this kind from that mid to late 90s era. I never ever got that style of gameplay. And the game is a true obscurity, unless you've tracked down information about every 90s FMV game known to man.
"That's actually a nice touch that they give you a chance to reconsider killing yourself" - Ross "The One True Free man" Scott
See Ross, you are raising the bar with every new episode and making me say "this one is the best" BECAUSE OF YOU I'M HAVING TRUST ISSUES WITH MYSELF GODDAMNIT! Guess I'm gonna have to do another dark ritual to curse your apartment with mold.
Wait wait... Hang on a minute... Radiation warning?
This is a frickin Remote controlled Drone! There are no humans around!
Just to warn you to not bring the drone back to earth
Robots actually get damaged by radiation, the ones sent into the Chernobyl and Fukushima reactors broke down.
threemoo Actually, radiation IS dangerous for robots since it corrupts semi-conductors inside them and such, thus equipment begin to malfunction. I remember reading news which said that robots which were sent to deal with Fukushima were dying very quickly because of such high radiation. So this makes sense.
Apparently when the radiation level is too high it could cause the metal to become brittle and weak.
And in addition to the already mentioned electronic malfunctions, deadly high radiation levels can heat up metal pretty quickly, which probably isn't good for robots in general.
People who make detailed walk-throughs are heroes.
I remember playing an FMV game where I remotely controlled a drone in a dangerous area to hopefully avert a catastrophe.
...I could've sworn Iron Helix took place in space, though.
I would have never known not to walk on lava if it weren't for the good 'ol Admiral.
I remember back when game demos and trailers came on CDs provided by game magazines. One such trailer was Maabus, which had some awesome 90s dance music included. 20-ish years later, I finally tracked down what music was played. It was Think About The Way by Ice Mc. It's on youtube
there needs to be a national holiday honoring our unsung, unpraised and mostly unknown heroes who write these walkthroughs
14:34
That door sound is actually a stock sound effect. Doom got most of its sounds from sound libraries.
So I finally know where that quote came from. Now things are beginning to make sense.
This game is such a perfect example of experimentation era dos games. The game feels like it was designed to be frustrating because the only thing the devs were thinking of was if it was interactive and if it was unique
"You can't get robbed by blue aliens if you don't see them"
I want that on a shirt or bumper sticker.
I like how game dungeon became a meme dungeon itself. Digging in years worth of videos results backwards in timeline you can witness of meme evolution and rediscover it origins. And NOW things are beginning to make sense.
More later.
Thank you so much, Ross! Whenever there is a new game dungeon episode it really makes my day!
another great game dungeon. your dedication to playing through and preserving the history of these games is admirable. it always amuses me how much work had to have been put into these games and even if they're not great, to lose them to history would be a huge loss. keep it up, ross!
It's really worth checking youtube for the Maabus Trailer. I grew up watching that trailer and thought this is the hypest ever. It's not.
If Ross had this software, Freeman's Mind would have taken 3 years, tops.
Man, this brings back memories. I used to watch the trailer for this game and its Eurodance/Reggae music track ALL the time. It came on a multimedia disc with some other games, some pix files (or were they pic files?), some bikini photos, and some short music clips. There were a few free games on the disc, too.
Holy crap. I remember finding a trailer for this game buried in the directory of a magazine demo disk around 97ish. I've been wondering what the game was for over 20 years! Mystery finally solved!
"Ah, an alien spacecraft. Now this is all beginning to make sense."
I did a spit-take, not gonna lie. Especially because it wasn't making any damn sense to me!
I'm kind of disappointed they didn't go any further with that.
That late in a game that provides exactly zero exposition or plot or story, what the hell sort of difference would it even have made? XD
I was 10 years old, a close friend of my father had a computer store and had a copy of this game. I could see it on the shelf every time I went to the store, then one day it was gone. Later it reappeared, The man said to my dad that it had been sold, but the owner returned it and wanted his money back. Then he sold it twice again as used, still the game was returned to the store. So he thought it could be nice as a gift for his friend’s son, me. I was young but I could sense he was trying to get rid of this game. When I got it it had no manual left whatsoever but I found inside the box a paper with one word written down, “Maaballs”. I installed it, played a little, figured out it was a piece of shit and tossed it into the trash bin.
And ever since, the Admiral has been at Ross' side, like a Djin freed from a lamp.
Holy shit Ross, you should get the presidential medal of freedom for enduring this game for our viewing enjoyment. Thank you for your service
Fourth award killed me. Great timing.
Shit, I thought the last reward was gonna be "doesn't respect your time.". Timers in games suck.
_Doesn't respect your time_ is for games that take an unreasonable amount (too much) of time to complete for any cause.
Well the thing is you can get lucky, this felt more random / them trying to figure out what they were doing. "Doesn't respect your time" needs to be far more deliberate.
Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter comes to mind for games that doesn't respect your time.
discovered your channel last night, and i haven't been able to stop watchingyour videos, i love older pc games!
So hooked on these, thanks for putting in the work ross!
Maabus was one of the worst investments in my life. Got a mitsumi cd ROM drive for my 486/66 and needed something to test drive it. Unfortunately I got tricked in buying this turd by the box art. I think it cost almost 100 German marks at the time. Translates to at least $250 in 2020 Dollars.
God damn was I pissed.
Holy heck.
And I feel cheated if I buy a good $60 that then goes on sale for $30 week later.
I love the admiral 😂 The admiral is the best part of this games everything lol
5:33
NOW WAIT A FUCKING SECOND
The Game Over credits theme was used in one of the Russian VHS intros. So that's where it came from. Or did Maabus use it from some music library?
ua-cam.com/video/KWDFIjRjs2s/v-deo.html - go to 0:22
TechNoirMK it's probably because it was stock music which could be used for free or something. Anyway, good ear!
TechNoirMK Oh no, don't mind me, I just noticed that Jolyne was your profile picture and I like pointing those things out--
Wow, pretty good catch.
What are the Russian VHS intros? Asking for a friend.
TechNoirMK Кстати, да.
What are they, and why there was so much of them?
"It's time for bed kids, cartoons are over." 24:06