Crosstalk: BPirnegsos 3CDf

Don't want to download? Watch the playthrough video!

While cleaning out the attic, you find your classic '99 Xenon Game Console® and a disc of the only slightly-popular Bingo 3D™. Just for kicks, you plug the box into your CRT and boot up Bingo, but find that there's another disc stuck in the console. The Xenon was advertised (perhaps dishonestly) as "the first video game console / VCR that you can play with your TV remote!" but now that may be its undoing. Watch as Bingo 3D is slowly overwritten by The U.S. Dept. of State Highlights Reel 2007-2008 over 5 moody and contemplative levels! Your keys control both the platformer and video menu simultaneously, presenting new challenges never before seen.

Pro tip: when the game says it's saving, that means you can't start or stop a Dept. of State video (--> you can't jump).

Controls: Arrow keys and space (or enter) to jump.

Inspired by phenomena like double-exposure, crosstalk, print-through, and improper erasure in analog media. Also the Captain Disillusion video on the Disney Ghost, if you know what I'm talking about. Could this actually happen, and in this way? No, probably not, and especially not with optical discs. Maybe.

Media produced by the U.S. Government is in the public domain to my knowledge. Here's the U.S. Dept. of State Archives if you want more of that for some reason: https://video.state.gov/category/videos/archive#category/videos/archive/

I really wanted this to be playable in the browser, but the video files take up way too much space. Fun fact: this is the first game I've published that I've made in the Godot engine (you should check it out it's awesome) and I didn't know that it couldn't stream video from a URL.

Yes, the background music doesn't loop. Oops. Related: headphone users, consider yourself warned. The U.S. Department of State is apparently not the U.S. Department of Audio Mixing.

I couldn't export to Mac b/c of file formats, so I added a Linux export. I'm running Windows 11, so I have no idea if that's actually going to work for anyone, but it's there.

The last level is a little... vindictive. Sorry about that. It's a spiral, but the vertices of the platforms have been corrupted to the point of dissolution. If you can get through it, you'll have the unadulterated U.S. Dept. of State Highlight Reel 2007-2008 to yourself. The greatest prize any person could ask for.

Could this be construed as a metaphor for growing up or something else? Perhaps. Leave your best media analysis takes in the comments.