Way back in the late ’80s the pioneering graphic adventure studio Sierra Online released 2 games in the dystopian, alien invasion Manhunter series. These games mixed point-and-click adventure with arcade gameplay and relied on heavy doses of humor and horror to keep the player engaged. Somehow in our youth we landed a copy of Manhunter San Francisco and devoted loads of time solving puzzles in a stylish cloak, avoiding rat-human hybrids, and trying to decipher the meaning of “bat vomit”. In fact, I played Manhunter SF so much that years later after moving to northern California I discovered that I had already acquired a fairly decent handle on San Francisco geography (Coit Tower and the Transamerica Pyramid are real? Videogames taught me something!). Looking back on the Manhunter series now, I’m impressed by the incredible indie feel these games have. Maybe it’s the slightly offbeat humor and dark themes, the strange non-linear gameplay (you never knew what sort of puzzle or challenge might get thrown your way), or the inclusion of the game developers taunting you at every misstep (authorial expressivity and fourth wall breaking on par with Parker Lewis Can’t Lose). Personally, the Manhunter games played a large role in developing my aesthetic preference for games with fringe appeal and atypical aspirations. Bottom line: get yourself an emulator and kill some orbs.