The 7th Guest

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The 7th Guest
Studio Trilobyte
Publisher Virgin Interactive
Senior Developer Graeme Devine , Rob Landeros
Erstveröffent-
lichung		 1993
platform DOS , CD-i , Macintosh , Windows , Linux ,
iOS from version 4.0
genre Point-and-click adventure
system advantages
preconditions		 MS-DOS  5.0, 386DX processor, 2 MB RAM, 16-bit SVGA card with 512 kB graphics memory, 1x CD-ROM, 10 MB hard disk space
medium CD-ROM , download
Current version DOS: v1.30
Windows: 2000 / XP installation patch (2005, unofficial patch )

The 7th Guest is a point-and-click adventure game developed by Trilobyte and published for DOS by Virgin Interactive in 1993 . It is considered one of the killer applications for the distribution of CD-ROM drives and has been sold over two million times.

action

The game relies on a variation on the Faust theme . A disappointed person by the name of Henry Stauf ( anagram for Faust ) makes a pact with the devil (shown in the game as the voices ).

Henry Stauf is a toy maker. Children who have bought toys from him get sick and die. Stauf receives the inspiration for his dolls from the voices , but the voices receive the souls of the children.

Nerd Stauf has built a villa away from town, to which one day he invites six guests. Stauf has promised every guest the fulfillment of their lifelong dream. In return, however, he demands the delivery of a child who is hiding in the house (the 7th guest, who gives it the name). Only a minority of the guests recognize the evil intentions of Stauf and try to save the child.

During the course of the game, which mainly consists of solving intelligence and patience games, the conflicts between the guests lead to the fact that they gradually kill each other. Some are also killed by Stauf or his demonic allies. Before the final, only the boy and the player ("the ego") remain ...

Game principle and technology

The 7th Guest is a 1st-person adventure, which means that the presentation of the event is from the perspective of the player. It's a point-and-click adventure ; the mouse pointer can be freely positioned on the screen and changes its appearance when it is positioned over objects in the game world with which an interaction is possible; the interaction can then be initiated using the mouse buttons. The camera shows a pre-rendered still image of the respective environment. Navigation within the game world takes place via exits - these can be doors or stairs shown in the still image, but also imaginary objects on the edge of the screen in larger rooms that allow access to other parts of the room. If the player clicks on such an exit, a simulated tracking shot takes him to a new, predefined location for this exit, where a still image of the surroundings is displayed again. The player can thus navigate through the game world location by location. The mini-games to be solved are also operated with the mouse pointer.

Production notes

The development budget exceeded a million dollars - a very high sum for the time. The frame story was also published as a novel. The book has the same title as the game and contributes significantly to the understanding of the framework, which is difficult in the game due to the non-chronological sequence of the video sequences. The scenes before and after each of the games, as well as the introduction to the game, were shot and implemented with real actors.

The 7th Guest was one of the first computer games to be released exclusively on CD-ROM as it would not have fit on a collection of floppy disks. The first games on CD-ROM appeared in 1991 ( Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective , games for game consoles from 1989). The original edition was followed by conversions for CD-i , Macintosh (1994) and Windows (1997). In 1995 the sequel The 11th Hour appeared . In 2010 a version for Apple's iOS was released. In February 2012, The 7th Guest and 11th Hour were announced as download versions at Good Old Games ; on February 9th, The 7th Guest appeared there. Both titles have been available as download versions at DotEmu since January 30th and February 3rd, 2012 respectively. In 2013, The 7th Guest: Remastered, a version for mobile devices with an Android operating system, was released. Only the CDi version has German voice output. In 2011, The 7th Guest: Infection was released, an offshoot created by Trilobyte for iOS devices, which takes a puzzle from the original game and expands it into an independent game.

The sequel The 11th Hour also takes place in Henry Stauf's house, but much later and with other protagonists (except Henry Stauf). Some of the guests killed in The 7th Guest briefly appear as ghosts. A third part, The 7th Guest III - The Collector , was announced for 2004, but has not yet been released. Trilobyte announced in November 2011 that The 7th Guest III (not identical to the originally planned The Collector ) is expected to appear in autumn 2012 as a download game with several episodes. In December 2013, a crowdfunding campaign for The 7th Guest III - The Collector was launched, which requested $ 435,000 for funding. This funding amount could not be reached. The development studio Attic Door Productions started another crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter in July 2015 to develop The 13th Doll , a spiritual successor to The 7th Guest and The 11th Hour . The Kickstarter campaign was successful. As with his predecessors, the actor Robert Hirschboeck could be won for the role of Henry Stauf . Developer Trilobyte also provided the license for the commercial marketing of its brand. The game is currently under development.

reception

reviews
publication Rating
PC joker 54%
PC player 62%
Power play 70%

Power Play magazine praised the visual and acoustic presentation of the game as well as the "crisp logic puzzles". It criticized the linear course of the game, the imbalance between high-quality presentation and rather simple content and the high price of the game of 180 marks for the time. Overall, the magazine saw the "future of electronic entertainment" in the game's technical approach.

The trade magazine Adventure Gamers placed The 7th Guest in 2011 in its list of Top 100 All-Time Adventure Games in 82nd place.

Web links

One of the two developers: Graeme Devine (2010)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The 7th Guest. In: iTunes Store . Retrieved March 17, 2011 .
  2. ↑ Patches . Adventure-Treff .de. Archived from the original on July 15, 2009. Retrieved May 22, 2011.
  3. ↑ Downloads ( English ) www.tbyte.com. Archived from the original on April 24, 2001. Retrieved May 25, 2011.
  4. ↑ cubanraul: Miscellaneous game installation fixes: The 7th Guest version 2.1 ( English ) comcast.net. 2005. Retrieved July 17, 2011: “ These fixes cover: Rocket Jockey, The 7th Guest, and The 11th Hour. These will help you install the above games with the latest patches included on Windows 2000 / XP. "
  5. ↑ a b Trilobyte Games joins list of GOG.com partners ( English ) gog.com. Archived from the original on February 15, 2012. Retrieved on February 3, 2012.
  6. ↑ Blockbuster Duo returns to PC market ( English ) www.trilobytegames.com. Retrieved February 7, 2012.
  7. ↑ a b The 7th Guest III ( English ) www.trilobytegames.com. Retrieved February 7, 2012.
  8. ↑ Media Center: The Stauf Files ( English , pdf; 15.9 MB) In: stauf files.pdf . trilobytegames.com. May 24, 2011. Archived from the original on February 7, 2015. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved May 24, 2011. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / mediacenter.trilobytegames.com
  9. ^ Matthew J. Costello and Craig Shaw Gardner: The 7th Guest. From the American by Ute Thiemann. Berlin: Goldmann 1995. ISBN 3-442-43377-0
  10. ^ New Release: The 7th Guest . GOG.com, February 9, 2012
  11. ↑ Catalog on dotemu.com ( Memento of the original from October 24, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed February 11, 2012 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.dotemu.com
  12. ↑ News of the Week: The 7th Guest and The 11th Hour now available on DotEmu.com ( Memento of the original from August 13, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . DotEmu.com, February 3, 2012 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.dotemu.com
  13. ↑ Kickstarter campaign for The 7th Guest III - The Collector. Retrieved June 23, 2016 .
  14. ^ Kickstarter campaign for The 13th Doll. Retrieved June 23, 2016 .
  15. ↑ Monika Stoschek: The 7th Guest . Spooky ... In: PC Joker . No. 8/93 . Joker-Verlag, Haar August 1993, p. 71 ( kultboy.com [accessed August 18, 2019]).
  16. ^ Boris Schneider-Johne : The 7th Guest . In: PC Player . No. 6/93 , June 1993, pp. 44-47 ( kultboy.com [accessed August 18, 2019]).
  17. ↑ a b Power Play 7/93 Horror Digital: The 7th Guest. Retrieved September 30, 2016 .
  18. ↑ AdventureGamers.com: Top 100 All-Time Adventure Games. Retrieved January 14, 2016 .