From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

Strap on yore bigboy pants:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2860410/NineHells/

rms
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On Wed, 15 Apr 2026 11:25:06 -0600, "rms" <[email protected]> said
this thing:

Strap on yore bigboy pants:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2860410/NineHells/

At first glance, the game reminds me of "Kraven Manor", another
freebie that came out a few weeks ago and I played back in March. That
one was interesting conceptually and mechanically, but it was very
obviously a student project and lacked the depth to make for a
satisfying and complete project. But I forgave it because it /was/ a
student project.

"NineHells" seems similar in that there seems to be some talent in the art-direction (even if a lot of the game seems to be store-bought game
assets) and the conceptual idea seems sound... but the mechanics don't
seem fully fleshed out and the pacing and gameplay are shit. But this
isn't a student project, so it gets less tolerance.

I grabbed it anyway; The Number was hungry. But I doubt I'll play this
one.



[Also, a complaint unrelated to the game... but what's up
with Steam not adding free games to your exported library
unless you install them first? Sure, they show up in your
library when you look at the list in Steam, but if you try
to import that list into another app --as I do with GOG Galaxy
or Playnite-- freebies like "NineHells" just don't appear.
Well, not unless you install them first; then they are
suddenly there. Which means I'm constantly installing then
uninstalling games. Well, I guess I'm a niche case so this
probably isn't a bug that Valve cares about... but it's
annoying to me ;-)]


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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

"rms" <[email protected]> looked up from reading the entrails of the
porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs say:

Strap on yore bigboy pants:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2860410/NineHells/

Oh so you play an Epic employee?

Xocyll
--
I don't particularly want you to FOAD, myself. You'll be more of
a cautionary example if you'll FO And Get Chronically, Incurably,
Painfully, Progressively, Expensively, Debilitatingly Ill. So
FOAGCIPPEDI. -- Mike Andrews responding to an idiot in asr
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

On Wed, 15 Apr 2026 11:25:06 -0600, "rms" <[email protected]> said
this thing:

Strap on yore bigboy pants:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2860410/NineHells/

At first glance, the game reminds me of "Kraven Manor", another
freebie that came out a few weeks ago and I played back in March. That
one was interesting conceptually and mechanically, but it was very
obviously a student project and lacked the depth to make for a
satisfying and complete project. But I forgave it because it /was/ a
student project.

"NineHells" seems similar in that there seems to be some talent in the art-direction (even if a lot of the game seems to be store-bought game assets) and the conceptual idea seems sound... but the mechanics don't
seem fully fleshed out and the pacing and gameplay are shit. But this
isn't a student project, so it gets less tolerance.

I grabbed it anyway; The Number was hungry. But I doubt I'll play this
one.

[Also, a complaint unrelated to the game... but what's up
with Steam not adding free games to your exported library
unless you install them first? Sure, they show up in your
library when you look at the list in Steam, but if you try
to import that list into another app --as I do with GOG Galaxy
or Playnite-- freebies like "NineHells" just don't appear.
Well, not unless you install them first; then they are
suddenly there. Which means I'm constantly installing then
uninstalling games. Well, I guess I'm a niche case so this
probably isn't a bug that Valve cares about... but it's
annoying to me ;-)]

I'm not sure. I tried bringing up a text list of games in Steam and
couldn't do i even though I asked the AI repeatedly about the controls locations. Do you have an older version of Steam? I want it to vet my
list and remove the high RAM games from my installed games automatically
but need to import the text list and can't find a way to get it.
--
Pharaoh was so pleased with Hadad that he gave him a
sister of his own wife, Queen Tahpenes, in marriage.
The sister of Tahpenes bore him a son named Genubath,
whom Tahpenes brought up in the royal palace. There
Genubath lived with Pharaoh’s own children.
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On 4/15/2026 10:25 AM, rms wrote:

Strap on yore bigboy pants:
  https://store.steampowered.com/app/2860410/NineHells/

rms

51%, looks like a janky asset flip and a genre I don't usually like.
Thanks, I'll skip it.
--
-Justisaur

ø-ø
(\_/)\
`-'\ `--.___,
¶¬'\( ,_.-'
\\
^'
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On Thu, 16 Apr 2026 12:11:36 -0400, Xocyll <[email protected]> said this
thing:

Strap on yore bigboy pants:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2860410/NineHells/

Oh so you play an Epic employee?

Heh.

Pity the poor Epic employee. They KNOW the company is going in the
wrong direction. There was a recent article (sorry, for once I don't
have the link) where a couple of former Epic Store employees basically
admitted that they knew that the weekly free games program was
pointless; that people only came for the free games then went back to
Steam. That there was a weekly surge on Thursdays as users grabbed the
game but no follow-up in activity (or purchases). That the free games
were great at getting people in the door, but once in, people found no
reason to stay.

People have been telling Epic that they need to improve the store
client experience for almost a decade now. The guys on the ground
floor know this too. It's a mystery why the C-levels haven't taken
action. Maybe litigation and name-calling is just easier?





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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

Spalls Hurgenson <[email protected]> looked up from reading the entrails of the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs
say:

On Thu, 16 Apr 2026 12:11:36 -0400, Xocyll <[email protected]> said this
thing:

Strap on yore bigboy pants:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2860410/NineHells/

Oh so you play an Epic employee?

Heh.

Pity the poor Epic employee. They KNOW the company is going in the
wrong direction.

Yeah I would hate to work somewhere like that.
You need the money but think why couldn't I get a job somewhere with
more morals and ethics, like a company testing caustic chemicals on
puppies or something like that.

People have been telling Epic that they need to improve the store
client experience for almost a decade now. The guys on the ground
floor know this too. It's a mystery why the C-levels haven't taken
action. Maybe litigation and name-calling is just easier?

Because they literally don't understand the idea of customer service,
it's a "cost center and does not bring in revenue."

To them the customer is a sheep, stupid, placid, complacent and ready to
be sheared and slaughtered.

Doesn't work when you take away the stupid part though, but the C-levels
see what they want to see, not what is.

Xocyll
--
I don't particularly want you to FOAD, myself. You'll be more of
a cautionary example if you'll FO And Get Chronically, Incurably,
Painfully, Progressively, Expensively, Debilitatingly Ill. So
FOAGCIPPEDI. -- Mike Andrews responding to an idiot in asr
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

Spalls Hurgenson <[email protected]> wrote at 15:54 this Friday (GMT):

On Thu, 16 Apr 2026 12:11:36 -0400, Xocyll <[email protected]> said this
thing:

Strap on yore bigboy pants:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2860410/NineHells/

Oh so you play an Epic employee?

Heh.

Pity the poor Epic employee. They KNOW the company is going in the
wrong direction. There was a recent article (sorry, for once I don't
have the link) where a couple of former Epic Store employees basically admitted that they knew that the weekly free games program was
pointless; that people only came for the free games then went back to
Steam. That there was a weekly surge on Thursdays as users grabbed the
game but no follow-up in activity (or purchases). That the free games
were great at getting people in the door, but once in, people found no
reason to stay.

People have been telling Epic that they need to improve the store
client experience for almost a decade now. The guys on the ground
floor know this too. It's a mystery why the C-levels haven't taken
action. Maybe litigation and name-calling is just easier?

Once again, Steam does nothing and continues winning lol
--
user <candycane> is generated from /dev/urandom
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On Tue, 21 Apr 2026 19:20:06 -0000 (UTC), candycanearter07 <[email protected]> said this thing:

Once again, Steam does nothing and continues winning lol

I mean, Valve and Steam aren't without fault. Valve profits incredibly
from (and thus turns a blind eye to) online gambling that targets the underaged; many consider the Steam client to be bloated, and Valve
does relatively little to prevent toxic communities. You could also
argue that its 30% cut is outdated; a relic of the days when games
mostly were sold in brick-and-mortar storefronts (back then, the 30%
cut Valve took was actually a bargain!). But today, some see it as
overly high. Not to mention Steam was the leader in pushing a digital
download system that leaves purchasers of games with little
alternative should Steam suddenly shut down.

And yet, for all that, Steam still remains head-and-shoulders better
than any of its competitors. And it's not that Valve doesn't do
anything; their client is more feature-rich than any of the
alternatives (and let's not forget all its hardware initiatives). But
it's true; a lot of the struggles of Ubisoft, Epic and the rest are self-inflicted. The idea of building a better mousetrap --or even a
mousetrap as good as the existing one-- just never seems to occur to
them.

Then again, that's probably because for most of the competitors, the
digital client is a cost-center. EA, Epic, UBisoft, Blizzard... they
are all primarily in the business of developing and selling their own
games. The storefront is secondary. For Valve --despite their success
with "Half Life" and "Counterstrike"-- it's the storefront which is
their primary interest. Their games are, nowadays, used to push
Steam's success, not the other way around. So it's not surprising that Epic/EA/etc. put a different level of importance to the store client.







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