GAG

GAG is very little known outside Russia, which isn't really astonishing, seeing as the English version seems to have been published only in the Netherlands, with a Dutch manual. The Russian Auric Vision website (the only one that still remains) claims there was an English, a Dutch and a German version, but I found no trace about these elsewhere.

GAG is an adventure game, a bit like Myst, a bit like Zork Nemesis, and maybe a bit like Phantasmagoria, but with the tongue firmly planted in the cheek, and with some sexy elements. There even was a somewhat raunchier 18+ version, but differences weren't all that great:

You can watch Flyboy Magazine without the frustrating penguin, the calendar girls are naked, and there's a really very long, maybe a little too long window scene between two naked girls who do naughty things to each other.—Betje

Penguin? Yes, penguins play an important role in GAG, there's even one on the title screen, and the hero is impotent because of a penguin bite.

What little notoriety GAG has outside Russia is mainly due to the fact that one of the four arcade minigames—the most difficult and the only slightly buggy one—has been released seperately and has gained quite a popularity under the name XTET or X-Tetris.

It is a highly unique Tetris clone (the puzzles in GAG are generally unconventional and imaginative) where instead of blocks you have to match couples. In the game, you find a Gagboy, later a game cartridge, and then you have to gain a certain score. It is slightly buggy because you cannot play this minigame after a certain point. This is of course irrelevant for the seperate release.

It was due to this XTet that I came across GAG at all, I wanted to know if there were any other games by ZES't/Auric Vision, and stumbled upon GAG. Otherwise I wouldn't know about this game either.

But if GAG is obscure, it still should be noted that it is one of the few Russian adventure games available in an English version at all, in fact, it is the only one I know about. From this point of view, it's a celebrity.

Reviews and Links

• I thoroughly enjoyed this game, and it is a shame it wasn't released more widely, Alexander Tait says in the introduction to his walkthrough:

  It is a humorous, sexy, and outrageous adventure that, at times, reminded me of Zork Nemesis, Mummy: Tomb of the Pharaoh, Myst, and Frankenstein. It does feature some adult-oriented material but is not pornographic. The game is a first-person, inventory-driven adventure that features quirky cutscenes. Many of the graphics are beautiful, in the vein of Zork Nemesis. The story, although unusual, is easy to follow despite being created in Eastern Europe. Some of the puzzles are quite creative, and I guarantee they will not be seen in another adventure.

• A wonderful and entertaining adventure game, GraveDigger thinks, it should not be missed by serious and die-hard adventure gamers:

  GAG is a very sexy and full-of-laughter comic adventure game developed by a less-known Russian gaming house. Unfortunately, this graphic adventure was poorly marketed in Europe after it was released in Russia and it's really hard to find this game in Western Europe or the USA.

• Box Shots with the Dutch package blurb:

  Who should play GAG:

  • Oversexed gamers 16 years or older
  • Gamers with no potence problems
  • Fans of pretty women and dumb games

  Who should definitely not play GAG:

  • The league for the preservation of penguins
  • Gamers who don't like gratuitious nudity
  • Gamers who cannot bear a game based on the impotence under which they suffer

• Screenshots

About Auric Vision

Besides GAG, Auric Vision published the shooter Z.A.R. (1C: Maddox Games, 1998) and developed the adventure game Nuts (1999). Other games they published and/or developed are Hippo Stories (1997), the Quake-clone Madspace (1997), and Double Agent.

• Game awards
• List of Games

GAG2: Back to the future

There is a sequel to GAG, developed by ShowGirlsSoft and published by Media2000.

The second part of a widely known and popular game "GAG". The main character of the game—Garic Mammoths—the member of part-time staff of the Tax Department. He receives the message that the only escaped member of The Black Brotherhood, a scientist of genius and a maniac was involved in financial frauds at a factory that manufactures medicinal products. The investigation of this affair is entrusted to Garic…