Hello! And welcome back for another dive into the icy waters of things game-like and game adjacent. This week, Chris is pondering where games often can’t go. Elsewhere, Florence takes a gamble on The Invisible Casino and Keith discovers an unexpected Pal version of a cult SNES fighting game.

The Bathysphere crew
Christian Donlan
Florence Smith Nicholls
Keith Stuart

Contact us at bathyspherecrew@gmail.com

Delightful games

Last week I went to the UAL London College of Communication MA Game Design show. There I had the good fortune to try out Chris Diffin’s The Invisible Casino. Diffin plays the dealer, an enigmatic persona with tinted glasses. He produces cards out of a briefcase, encouraging you to take part in a series of inscrutable mini games in which it’s not always clear how you win, or even what the rules are. You can find documentation of this creative immersive experience on itch, but you really need to experience it with Chris in-person. FSN

Another highlight from the Game Design show was Cloud Posting, in which you take requests to write messages as a skywriter. It’s delightfully tricky to manipulate a plane using your mouse, experimenting with how you can concoct anything from an invitation to get drinks or a heartfelt birthday message. FSN

Interesting things

The Video Game History Foundation has two fascinating events coming to its official YouTube channel very soon. On 15 December there’s a look at the organisation’s attempt to save the Sega Channel, the groundbreaking Genesis digital games service. On the 17 December there’s a live archaeological dig through unlabelled ROMs donated by Sony Imagesoft and Atari Games – the collection apparently includes unreleased projects! KS

Essay: Where games struggle to go

I remember, and it must have been almost twenty years back, seeing a game that ran in the URL window of a browser. I’m sure it was in EDGE. I thought at the time that games had gotten everywhere. I remember having this same thought a lot more during the golden age of smartphone gaming: games were suddenly on the bus, in coffee shops, in bed just before lights out.