This is meant to be a "living document" of all the catchphrases we use, phrases we coin, and our own particular opinions of various game standards. Expect frequent updates and additions.

Adventure Game Logic - A method of thinking, seperate from real world common sense, necessary to determine puzzle solutions in most text or point-and-click adventure games. The most common tennent of AGL is that the most convoluted, makeshift solution will be the one needed for a puzzle, even if a much simpler, obvious solution seems available. Initially employed by game designers who were either attempting to increase the difficulty, or too lazy to program different solutions for a given puzzle.

For example: The player character must retrieve a kite that is stuck in a high tree. Despite being in the woods, he cannot pick up any of the thousands of fallen branches. Instead he must find a baseball bat hidden behind a rock and combine it with a magnet and some peat moss to create a "kite-tree-getter-outter."

Adventure Game Logic remained even in later, more sophisticated games, as it had become a loved, or at least expected staple of the genre. Comedic titles often poke fun at AGL. The player character may find himself behind the locked door of locksmith's shop. He is surrounded by lock-picking tools but refuses to take them because "Stealing is wrong." Instead, the correct solution is to use a bent fishing hook found earlier.

JGR considers Sam & Max Hit the Road to be the best example of Adventure Game Logic, with the Babel Fish puzzle from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy a close second. Repeated exposure to AGL causes players to eventually develop the Adventure Game Mentality (See Adventure Game Mentality).

Adventure Game Mentality - The mindset of frequent adventure game players who are used to the often purposely complicated world of adventure games. Adventure Game Mentatlity consists mainly of three rules:

1) Pick up every object
2) Try every object/interaction on everything
3) Talk to everyone

Number 2 is a source for dissent. While this is the surest method of experiencing the entire game and the quickest route to puzzle solutions, it is thought by many to ruin the challenge of the game (see Button-Mashing) and considered acceptable only when the player is completely stuck.

Adventure Game Mentality can also refer to the expectation for certain kinds of puzzles or items to appear in any adventure game. Examples include, rope, buckets, journals or notes, and of coures, locked doors. In Sam & Max Hit the Road, after a particularly convoluted puzzle to retrieve a length of twine, Sam remarks "You always need a piece of rope in games like these."

Artificial Progress Block - A painfully obvious method used in any game that prevents you from continuing on, and frequently requires you must revisit that area later once you have something needed to proceed. May also simply prevent you from ever accessing an area, such as when a developer makes a hallway that doesn't extend beyond the screen, but wants to imply that it does (see Invisible Wall). The APB varies based on the game and game genre. Doom uses locked doors that require you to enter into a maze and get the keycard for before you can move on. Police Quest 4 has a mopping janitor blocking your elevator, to prevent you from entering that area until the proper time. Many of the methods get more creative or joking as video game history progresses, but the intent is always the same, and it always feels forced and artificial.

Button-Mashing - Mostly a term from fighting games, it refers the two ways you could play the game. The game masters would learn the various control moves for special attacks, remember the entire library o' moves later games would require, and attempt to pull them off accurately with fantastic timing. The other way was to just hammer buttons for punches and kicks until you won. Now in an ideal world, the practiced, tactical player should win against a whirlwind of hopes and fists, but this was not always so. The insult such players, who were actually TRYING to learn and play the game as-intended, felt at losing to someone who was just "button-mashing" led to the disparaging term. Can reference flawed game design - "Specials in this game are so poorly-coded that all you can do to win is just button mash," an easy game - "All you have to do to win is button mash," or how the J Man plays any game at all.

Cheat-Saving - Loosely, the practice of saving before a dangerous area or encounter, and reloading if it doesn't go your way. Can take a number of forms, all of which are a little obcessive or paranoid, from religiously saving every few minutes in case something goes wrong, to restarting the game console itself for games that only let you load a saved game from the main screen. An accepted, and common practice. Usually not considered "cheating" by the people who do it, leading to claims that "I beat such and such on the hardest level ever because I'm totally awesome." Sorry, we don't agree. Simply reloading when you make a mistake, or throwing yourself at a tiny section of game until you luck your way through it, doesn't make you a champ and is nothing to brag about. Even the sun sometimes shines on a dog's ass.

Clowncar Coalition Theory - The theory that an action game won't be exciting unless you have thousands of bad guys to kill. Explains why these thousands of red/blue/grey ninjas or whatever have all grouped up in numbers to fill a city, and all hate you. Symbolizes the ultra-violence games have come to be notorious for. Used as a joking explanation for why everyone is out to get you in early console and PC titles. Used disparagingly in reference to more current games, as it often represents antiquated and lazy game design.

Double Shock Power - A term coined by boxing promoter Don King when describing the (I believe) Tyson vs Spinks fight of 1988. I can't verify this is the specific fight, but whichever Tyson fight it was, at a press conference for, King said things like:

(paraphrased)
"Everybody in Detroit is gonna be watching this fight... because it has... double shock power. Everybody in Phillydelphia... is gonna be watching this fight... because it has... double shock power." And so on.

No one actually has ANY idea what "double shock power" means, but based on the context, it suggests something that has a broad, undeniable appeal. It has also been used, rather eclectically, in sports circles to describe high-stakes, but pretty-confident bets, i.e. "The Patriots winning the AFC east... that's got double shock power."

FMV or Full Motion Video - Mostly an odd misnomer (isn't all video inherently "full motion?") to describe the inclusion of video segments into games, or video-based games themselves. Encouraged by gamers calling for more "realism" in their games, and developers and publishers looking to cheaply increase their graphics (what could look more "real" than real life?) Also used by opportunists to create low-budget films with big-budget game dollars. They cloaked themselves in the claims of letting you "play through a Hollywood blockbuster," but we believe that every FMV hack is a wannabe-Hollywood director that didn't make it. Most of these games are thus characterized by long periods of watching a non-interactive movie, and brief periods (often lasting long enough for a single button tap) of actual interaction and gameplay.

Also used disparagingly to refer to the early compression schemes, and subsequent quality, of these video sections - ie, if you're talking about FMV, it looks like crap unless otherwise stated. Most FMV is compressed into less-than-full-screen sizes (320x240 seemingly being the most common) and MPEG-1 or a similar codec (like Cinepak for the Sega CD). The resultant video is pixelated all to high hell, and devoid of fine detail. Though you can generally tell what's going on through the motion on the screen, it is obscured by blocks of compression artifacts, and details like lapels or buttonholes are unable to be distinguished. Does tend to hold up better if animation, instead of live-action, is the source. Ironically, by the time the technology and compression could make serviceable videos, the boring gameplay of FMV, and the relative cheapness of high-quality, high-resolution 3-D computer or console graphics, ceased production of FMV titles.

Fourth Wall - The Fourth Wall is a theatrical term, stemming from the assumption that the audience is an invisible, unaffecting spectator of the events on stage. Therefore, the "fourth wall" would be the invisible barrier between the performers on stage, and the audience in their seats. The term mostly comes up when actors acknowledge, or otherwise become aware of, the "invisible" audience. This is called breaking, piercing, smashing, shattering, or otherwise doing terrible things to the fourth wall. An example would be if a cell phone rings, and Hamlet turns to ask whoever that it is to turn it off their phone.

This of course assumes that the interaction is a mistake, and ruins the suspension of disbelief. If not defined or required by the plot, an actor should never break the fourth wall. However, some stories require it, and benefit from it. When Ferris Bueller talks to, or gives knowing glances to, the audience, he's bringing them in personally along for the ride. When a hero chases a villain in a kid's play, the villain hides, and the hero asks the kids to shout out help, this is meant to foster interaction and amusement. Breaking the fourth wall is not inherently bad, if it is intended.

We mostly call attention to the jarring examples present in videogames, that ruin the experience. Static is particularly sensitive to all fourth wall breakage, though he loves a good fourth-wall-whackin' comedy.

Holy Trinity of Build3D - Duke Nukem 3D, Blood, and Shadow Warrior. The three most (in)famous games based on Ken Silverman's Build engine. Similar not only in the engine that powers them, but in their over-the-top violence, interactive levels, wide variety of realistic locations (compared to other games of the time), and player characters that mumble wisecracks and curses to themselves. Not sequels of each other, but similar enough that they could be. All are generally a riot to play.

IP (Intellectual Property) - Not referring to the four digit number that allows you to connect to other computers. Intellectual Property is a buisness/marketing term for any creative license a company holds. So Star Wars is Lucas' IP. We frequently reference it, because, in the absence of actual ideas or creativity, designers LOVED to raid other (usually film) IPs.

It Wasn't Exciting Enough - A catchphrase around here referencing the Clowncar Coalition Theory. Comes directly from an interview with Chris Miller, producer of Die Hard: Nakatomi Plaza, to explain why the movie's six or so villains now became hundreds of bad guys. As if Die Hard wouldn't be exciting.

Mana - The measurement of a player's magical ability, if appropriate for the game, often in the form of a second (usually blue) meter underneath the life bar. Mana is a way to artificially limit the player's use of various bitchin' supernatural powers. Mana frequently regenerates slowly over time, but can usually be quickly replenished with some kind of powerup in the game. Comes from earlier games like Magic Carpet and many RPGs, which literally called the source of their magic "Mana."  Now, more of a generic term for any ability or suite of abilities, magical or innate, that are limited by a rechargeable power meter.  Can refer to either the meter/energy itself, or the pickups to recharge it.

NES Logic - The odd suggestion, present in many NES games, that harmless everyday objects take on severely damaging properties in the game world. The reason that birds, bowling balls, loose tires, and giant bumblebees attack your game character and actually cause bodily harm. Also includes the presence of unexplained platform staples (like spring blocks, saws, and ice blocks) into representations of otherwise everyday situations (like walking down the street). Not limited to the NES, but the system had the most titles displaying this kind of thought.

Parasite Game - A game that latches on to something popular piece of media with the specific intent to make easy money off of the original media's popularity. Made under the mistaken belief that having a popular title in their name automatically, and completely without effort, entitles the developers to the same profit as the media they are leeching from. Movies are the obvious target, but can also be books or other games, in the form of lackluster, half-assed sequels. Parasite games are defined by rushed, sloppy work, a complete lack of innovation, and a main selling point based entirely on the media tie-in, instead of anything about the game itself.

Pixel Hunt - A difficult, sometimes literally pixel-by-pixel, search of the game screen for a needed item - typically in an adventure game with two dimensional backgrounds. Usually used in derision as in "Rather than designing challening puzzles, they just made the whole game a series of pixel hunts." Often pixel hunts are created intentionanlly to artificially lengthen a game. Many games include a cursor that highlights when moved over a useable item to avoid, or lessen, pixel hunting.

Platformer - Originally used to describe early two dimensional side-scrollers where the player jumped from one platform to the next to proceed. Said platforms were built over deadly pits, making an ill-timed jump lethal. Also prominently featured various hazards like moving platforms, rising platforms, "ice" or slippery platforms, or platforms with hazards built into them (like moving buzzsaws or spikes). Now it has become a more general term for any non-realistic (as in anthropomorphic animals) title that requires jumping. Although, in 3D platformers, jumping is far more challenging since there are infinite points where the player can fall off a platform rather than just two. To balance out this difficulty, many such titles include a float or glide move allowing for greater accuracy in landing. Progress is frequently made vertically. Platforms are still highly present in the genre, as are pits.

Powerup - A generic term for anything, usually in the form of an icon in the gameworld, that boosts some aspect of your character by picking it up. These are most commonly more powerful, unique weapons (think Contra or R-Type), or some kind of replenishment to your health. The term has gained a little more separation over the years, and does not cover all things your character can pick up. A key, for example, is not a powerup. An actual item or gun with a name (not a generic icon or ability) such as those you can pick up in Doom, are generally not considered powerups; but the blue sphere that doubles your life would be. Finally, any powerup that gives you an extra life is specifically called a "1up"

Scanlines - A way of showing video that cuts down on the processor power needed to display it. It works off of a process similar to video interlacing, where the screen is divided into odd and even scanlines. In interlacing, these lines are rapidly cycled so that odd is off and even is on, then even is on and odd is off, many times per second resulting in the illusion of a constant image. Scanlines is the next step down, where either the odd or even lines are simply thrown out, and those lines are dead space. The result is a picture with black lines of various thickness (depending on how much processor speed they were trying to squeeze) constantly visible throughout the game or sequence. A bit like watching the scene through narrow venitian blinds. Saves processor power because the game is literally drawing only half the screen, but spreading that half of no image evenly across the entire screen and hoping you won't notice. Also used in early arcade cabinets for the same reason.

Shmup - Ridiculous shortening of "Shoot-em-up" that some fucktard invented for reasons unknown. This is the only place you'll see the term on this site. It's totally pointless (are "beat-em-ups" bmups?) and sounds like a Yiddish curse. I hate it.

Shooting Ladies Isn't Nice - A double-standard contrivance we use to facetiously explain why most enemies are men, and why any game allowing you to shoot women is rated M or MA-17.

Super - The most overused adjective in the history of gaming. If Nintendo could have patented it, they would have. Super Mario Brothers started the ordeal, signifying a radical departure from the original, single-screen Mario Brothers. Since then, it has been the prefix for countless sequels, remakes, even first time games that just wanted to sound new and unique. Nintendo's own next console became the SUPER Nintendo Entertainment System, and many of its games attatched Super to their titles simply to signify that they were for the SUPER NES.

This might make sense in the original Japanese, considering game "Amazing Crazy Ninja Fight" kind of titles that follow a similar pattern. Overall, both sound equally super-silly in English. We at JGR universally consider SUPER STAR WARS to be the best example of this title sillification.

Talkie - The first films with sync sound (and thus, audible dialogue) were called "talkies" by audiences used to the silent film era. For games, the term mostly refers to CD releases or re-releases of adventure games with spoken dialogue. 

The Only Man For The Job - Facetious term used to reference various tired, half-hearted plots that serve to both isolate your character from the rest of the world, and place its salvation squarely as your responsibility.

Treu - According to Static's wandering typing fingers, how the French spell "true."

Voyeur game - A game popularized by the advent of full-motion video, where you play some form of camera operator and switch between multiple feeds of video. Basically, an easy and obvious way to make video interactive. Called so because the subjects you "monitor" are usually unaware of your presence, and part of the plots involve watching them through their usual routines. The most stereotypical type of FMV game, and ironically, the least interactive. See Night Trap, Double Switch, and Ground Zero Texas for examples.

What Adventure Games Should Be - Our term for the late-80's, early 90's rethinking of adventure games. Encompasses a number of radical changes, but most notably: a move to abandon all forms of text parsers, adoption of point and click interfaces, adoption of linear quests where items cannot be lost or missed, and an inability to die or "get stuck." Pioneered by LucasArts and adopted by others as adventures started to be replaced with other game genres. Some equate this with the "dumbing down" of the adventure game, but we use it to refer to the streamlining of previously-frustrating game mechanics. It was certainly a license to dumb down many games, but not specifically a part of that movement.