Phantasmagoria (computer game)
| Phantasmagoria | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio | Sierra Entertainment | ||
| Publisher | Sierra Entertainment | ||
| Senior Developer | Roberta Williams | ||
| Erstveröffent- lichung |
1995 | ||
| platform | DOS , Windows , Mac OS , Saturn | ||
| genre | Point-and-click adventure | ||
| Game mode | Single player | ||
| control | Keyboard Mouse | ||
| system advantages preconditions |
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| medium | CD-ROM , download | ||
| language | German | ||
| Age rating |
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Phantasmagoria (from the Greek. Phantasmagoria = delusion, Gaukelbild) is a 1995 MS-DOS , Windows , Mac OS and Sega Saturn posted Horror Adventure of the American developer Sierra Entertainment . The world of Phantasmagoria revolves around demons , evil spirits and aliens who must be defeated by the brave heroes. The framework story was developed by Sierra founder Roberta Williams . In 1996 the successor Phantasmagoria 2: Labor des Horens appeared .
action
Adrienne Delaney and her husband Donald Gordon bought an old Victorian house on a small island in New England. Adrienne is about to start exploring her new environment. In the process, she comes across locked doors and other unusual occurrences. One day she discovers a secret chapel in the back of the house. In doing so, she frees a demon. This immediately takes possession of her husband Don. The dream of a happy life is instantly over. Don is constantly aggressive and gets worse and worse abuses, for example he rapes his wife. But Adrienne also experiences many cruel visions of terrible murders in the mirrors. Little by little, she realizes that her house has a gruesome past. The owner of the house who lived here before had brutally murdered his five wives.
Gameplay
Phantasmagoria is an adventure with point-and-click controls , the solution of the game aligns mainly in which to work with objects in an inventory and exploring the area. The mind of the player is required. To solve the game, dark rooms and ghostly houses must be explored.
development
The plot of the game comes from Roberta Williams . The game was in development for around two years and had a development budget of $ four million. Besides Wing Commander 3 , it was one of the first games with real actors. It was completely virtually recorded in a blue board studio. The cast included Victoria Morsell , David Homb , Robert Miano , Stella Stevens and Karl Neimiec . The backgrounds were rendered with computers from Silicon Graphics . The game occupies a total of seven CD-ROMs.
Due to some very violent scenes, the game was marked by the USK as “Not approved under 18 years”. In the US, the game received an ESRB rating of "Mature" (17 years and older) for strong sexual content and realistic violence and brutality.
In 1997, a version of the first game for the Sega Saturn video game console was released in Japan. The game developed by Sierra Pioneer Inc. and Infini Entertainment Technology Inc. was published by Outrigger Corporation under the name Phantasm .
reception
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The ratings of the game were mixed.
“But even the somewhat unfortunate final construction cannot change the fact that Sierra has achieved such a great success with this title that Lucas Arts will have a lot of trouble catching up. The story and the craftsmanship are simply convincing, you only have to be able to live (and then sleep) with the content, which is always justified, but still terribly gruesome shock effects. "
“Touted by Sierra for almost two years as a revolution in interactive entertainment, 'Phantasmagoria' turns out to be a secondary product in terms of technology and content. So it is e.g. B. not succeeded in integrating the figures optically believable into the rendering backdrop. [...] The puzzles are largely limited to looking for a new setting and addressing the people present there. In terms of content, Roberta Williams touches a tangled mixture of genres and uses just about every stupid horror film cliché. "
On its opening weekend, Phantasmagoria sold 300,000 times and made a turnover of twelve million US dollars. It peaked at number one on the US CD sales charts. Shortly before the successor was released, Sierra described the game as his biggest sales success to date. In 1996 in Cannes , France, awarded the Milia d'Or (Golden Milia) for best game.
After the two Phantasmagoria titles, there were also other adventures that were filmed by actors in front of the scenery, such as The Temptation , Byzantine - Death in Istanbul or Sierra's own The Beast Within: A Gabriel Knight Mystery .
In 1998, the PC game book of the same name was published by Steve Whitton.
Web links
- Phantasmagoria at MobyGames (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Sierra's Phantasmagoria tops charts and rakes in year-end awards . Business Wire . November 17, 1995. Archived from the original on April 4, 2015. Retrieved on April 2, 2015.
- ↑ Phantasmagoria in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- ↑ a b Editor: Horror Forum: Adventure: Phantasmagoria Archived from the original on April 5, 2015. In: InterAction . 9, No. 1, March 1996, p. 68.
- ↑ Test report PC Games
- ↑ a b Test report PC Joker
- ↑ Test report PC Player
- ↑ a b Test report Power Play
- ^ Yardena Arar: Making a Killing - Gumshoe Games Target New PC Users . In: Los Angeles Daily News . January 22, 1996. Retrieved March 25, 2015.
- ↑ Christa Phillips: Phantasmagoria: A Puzzle of Flesh Archived from the original on April 5, 2015. In: InterAction . 9, No. 2, June 1995, p. 65.
- ↑ Steve Whitton: Phantasmagoria . Ed .: Sierra On-Line, Inc. 1st edition. tape 14 147 , no. 990 . Bastei Lübbe, Bergisch Gladbach 1998, ISBN 3-404-14147-4 , p. 301 .