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[Mongrel]

Anybody know any good vidja games, feature all the fun aspects of pulp stories? Trawlers, hidden temples, jungles, nazis, smugglers, russian countesses, secret societies, ford trimotors, lost valleys, desert towns, "archaeology", otherworldly monsters, world travel before it was easy, dapper asians, obscure local tribes, and the like?

I think many years back there were some licensed Indiana Jones games, but anything recent or good?

[Ted Belmont]

I think the Uncharted series has most of what you're looking for.

[Brentai]

Pre-reboot Tomb Raider actually was pretty good for all that, as long as you don't mind the fact that every femme fatale you meet is second fiddle to the PC herself.

[jsnlxndrlv]

There's something pulpy about The Last Express, but also something very decidedly not. It's unusual.

[Mongrel]

A couple people have mentioned uncharted, but I was actually something that specifically takes place in the traditional Pulp period of roughly 1925-1955 (or 1919-1939, if you're some kind of obsessive purist).

[François]

I'm not sure if you included 2008 when you said "many years back", but in case you didn't, Lego Indiana Jones is pretty much the whole package in the domains you mentioned. If you can stand the Lego games, that is. Which is to say, you'll be disappointed if you expect any depth or real difficulty, but there are worse ways to spend an afternoon or two if you like whatever license the game is based on.

[Mongrel]

I've played one or two of the Lego games. They're brief little diversions. As you mentioned, you can typically plow through them in an afternoon or whatever.

Oh and also with regards to Uncharted, I suppose I'd have to have something other than a PC to play it.

Mainly, I was curious if the classic pulp aesthetic had ever really been given its day in the sun in a video game. I thought that might be neat to play.

EDIT: Damn, where's Geo when I need him? The words "broomhandle Mauser" should be like some kind of Geo-internet-bat-signal.   >:I

[Niku]

Crimson Skies, for all your Alternate 1930s Pulp Air Pilot needs.

[Brentai]

I was actually something that specifically takes place in the traditional Pulp period of roughly 1925-1955

I suppose I'd have to have something other than a PC to play it.

Stop doing that.

If you have really specific parameters, tell them up front.  Don't drag it out over a series of pages where you get more and more comically exasperated that we haven't divined your whims.

[Mongrel]

Okay, playable on PC is a fair point, but Pulp (when used as a genre descriptor) does not typically refer to the 21st century. It describes a specific time period and aesthetic, as well as particular themes.

[Thad]

Are you including noir under pulp?  There are plenty of old point-and-click adventure games in the noir genre, some period and others not.  Deja Vu is the classic example.  Telltale's upcoming The Wolf Among Us (a licensed Fables game that can't use the "Fables" title for obvious trademark reasons) looks promising.

And talking of point-and-click (and Telltale), does Monkey Island count?  I'll grant the Golden Age of Piracy doesn't fit the early-twentieth-century pulp setting, but it was a popular setting in pulp novels and certainly involves a lot of the elements you're talking about.

[Mongrel]

Noir matches the time period and shares some elements but is the small-scale, dark, and personal Yin to Pulp's broad, bright and expansive Yang. Not that there hasn't been crossovers or some muddying of the waters in written stories (with stuff like The Shadow, for instance).

In the case of Monkey Island or any other such tale, I would just call that a pirate adventure. And while unbridled "Adventure!" is an awfully big part of what makes Pulp, Pulp, it does not define the genre in and of itself.

I suppose there's confusion between pulp magazines or the pulp publishing era, which published a very wide variety of genre fiction with the use of 'Pulp' as label to describe of a specific type of adventure fiction which found its origins in and takes place during that same rough time period. The latter use is more recent (similar to the way "Steampunk" has sprung up as a specific genre) and is what I'm talking about.

This more-recent use does not necessarily refer exclusively to things published in that format during that time period. Stuff like Terry and and the Pirates, or Tintin, despite being comics which continued to be published well after the pulp publishing era ended would be good examples of this more-recent use of Pulp. Beyond that, the greatest modern example is Indiana Jones.

Even though it's not as big as Steampunk, I suppose I'm used to the concept because I know a lot of people who game that era and who use that descriptor describe the genre. I also find it fascinating that there seems to be no video games that really use the era as a setting, not even just Indiana Jones knockoffs, when it'd be amazingly fertile ground for a sprawling RPG or shooter/adventure game.

[Bal]

The SCUMM Indiana Jones adventure games have everything you would expect from the franchise. You're also not describing "pulp" very well. Mostly what you are describing is Indiana Jones, which is a mishmash of old matinee serial tropes with high production values. Pulp Fiction is not misnamed, it's just crime fiction instead of rollicking 1940's adventure. Pulp as a genre modifier really just implies a kind of willingness to be silly, scary, violent, or sexy enough to catch people's attention and sell your cheap entertainment to them. When people take the same concept and put some production value into it you get the same excess without it feeling cheap, except as part of the charm.

[Beat Bandit]

Without getting too much into the conversation about what is or is not pulp, here are some games that come to mind:

Bionic Commando: Rearmed - you can get it on Steam and it's about how America is great and all Nazi scum must die. Featuring highlights such as the hot female pilot who flirts with you, but you wont have it because you love your wife too much, and local co-op.

L.A. Noir -  Also on Steam, no Nazis in as far as I've played it. It's actually a really original and fun investigation experience that feels as much like Chinatown as any game will probably get. The only remotely similar thing that will take itself seriously.

These Two Indiana Jones Games That Come With Two More Point N' Clicks For Free In This Pack - Clearly you want Indiana Jones games, so if those other two do nothing this is about as good as it will get.

[Mongrel]

You're also not describing "pulp" very well. Mostly what you are describing is Indiana Jones, which is a mishmash of old matinee serial tropes with high production values. Pulp Fiction is not misnamed, it's just crime fiction instead of rollicking 1940's adventure. Pulp as a genre modifier really just implies a kind of willingness to be silly, scary, violent, or sexy enough to catch people's attention and sell your cheap entertainment to them. When people take the same concept and put some production value into it you get the same excess without it feeling cheap, except as part of the charm.

I get where you're coming from, which is the way the term was interpreted for a long time. The use of the term pulp to describe a specific genre instead of just as a genre modifier is pretty recent.

I would point out that I asked this same question on four forums and this is the only one where there was extensive hairsplitting over the definition of the genre. The membership the other three places all seemed to understand exactly what was meant, though in fairness one of them has an established subforum to dicuss the genre as I've described it already. I've also seen several (non-video) game companies spring up recently that use the term very similarly to the way I have, though one of them does cast a wider net, including gangsters and 30's pulp crime as you mentioned.

Point being this isnt some idiosyncratic definition I just came up with all by myself.

[Bal]

I'm sorry, but I find that definition to simply be mistaken. It negates the whole concept of what "Pulp" works of fiction really were, and continue to be to some extent. In fact, that kind of adventure was by far the minority. Most of the old pulp stories were in the horror or crime genres, seeking to shock, disgust and titillate their way in to people's nickles and dimes.

The stuff you're talking about came from the adventure serial movies that inspired Indiana Jones, and even earlier worked it's way into the B movies and exploitation films of the 50's and 60's. Especially the Nazi element, which obviously only came into vogue during and after WWII, after which they became the villains of countless works of fiction. However, the descendants of pulp works in the decades after WWII are better represented by the crime and horror comic books that were the bread and butter of many comic book companies, including Marvel.

Now, there is obviously a lot of cross pollination going on here between pulp, adventure, war, fantasy and exploitation, right from the very start, but defining Pulp as a genre as basically being Indiana Jones just seems ridiculous to me.

[Mongrel]

Well, Steampunk has nothing of the punk ethos or punk rock anywhere in it, and yet the word's being used to define that genre.

Like I understand the difference between pulp fiction and this more recent "Pulp" adventure stuff. I am also pretty familiar with exactly the history you're talking about. It's just that that word is now also being used to describe something more specific. Is is confusing? Maybe? Blame the internet? Blame the English language?

[Bal]

Well, steampunk isn't a genre either, it's an aesthetic style, sometimes important to the material, sometimes not. The exact definition is fluid, except that certain aesthetic themes that hark back to the period encompassing the rise of steam power through the industrial revolution must be present. The name has more to do with cyberpunk than punk rock, since after the coining of that term anything that seems to be dominated by a particular known aesthetic tends to be dubbed [whatever]punk.

I'm not after you or anything, I just take issue with that particular usage, since to my mind it doesn't make any damn sense.

[Brentai]

Are you sure this isn't a Canadian thing, or just the circles you travel in?  The last two usages of the word "pulp" I can remember were referring to Flash Gordon type sci-fi stuff and porn.

Not that there's a lot of difference between what you're talking about and what you're talking about in space, but I doubt you'd be very amused if I started suggesting, like, Rogue Galaxy and stuff.

...

Wait, what about Skies of Arcadia?  It's still very animu, but I think it's coming close to the esprit you're looking for, and I'm fairly sure anything you have that runs TF2 can emulate a Dreamcast these days.

[Thad]

Was the GC version better?  I never tried it but I hear it reduced the encounter rate, which was my biggest gripe about the DC version.