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Operating System Specific Discussions => Other Operating Systems => Topic started by: persia on July 31, 2009, 02:13:05 PM
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Classic Adventure 'Beneath a Steel Sky' Heads to the iPhone
posted July 30th, 2009 8:00 PM EDT by Blake Patterson in Adventure, News, Retro, Upcoming Games, iPhone games, iPod touch games
Long time adventure fans will be thrilled to hear that Revolution Software has informed us that they are forming a mobile game division called Revolution Pocket, and the first title to be released through the new division is an iPhone port of the cult-classic adventure Beneath a Steel Sky.
Originally released for the Amiga and DOS in 1994, Beneath a Steel Sky is a sprawling graphical adventure set in Australia in a dystopian future. The story goes like this: the protagonist, Robert, crashed in the Outback as a child and was raised by a group of natives. After growing into an adult, storm-troopers sent from Union City by its all-powerful computer, LINC, kidnap Robert and kill his tribe. After entering the city dome, the helicopter transporting him crashes and he escapes into the city with his robot companion, Joey. Robert's mission is to find out why he was wanted and what to do next.
The game received very high praise at the time of its release and is widely considered to be one of the best adventure games ever created. PC Gamer gave it 91% and called it "a must-buy for all serious adventure fans." CU Amiga gave it 95%, calling it "one of the greatest adventures ever," while Simon Byron of The One gave it a 93%, saying, "I could sum this game in one word: Superb."
Revolution indicates that the game builds on the original, featuring new animated movies from comic artist Dave Gibbons who did the artwork for the original game as well as its introductory comic book. This remastered iPhone release will feature a new context-sensitive help system and even higher quality audio than the original.
“The adventure genre is undergoing a renaissance, and we’re thrilled to be bringing a revamped and remastered version of this classic adventure to a whole new audience,” says Charles Cecil, founder of Revolution Software. Digital distribution has changed the game for developers, and it’s great to be able to communicate directly with our audience. Revolution has a sizeable, passionate fan base which we value enormously. By tackling development and publishing duties ourselves, we can strengthen our relationship with them and retain complete commercial and creative freedom – not just in terms of content, but in terms of distribution and, crucially, pricing. The model allows us to ensure that our games offer incredible value for money. We’re bringing high-quality, intelligent, narrative-based gaming to a whole new platform – some owners of which will have enjoyed the games before, and others who will be experiencing our titles for the very first time – and that’s something I find tremendously exciting.
While I've not personally played the game to completion, I've spent notable time with it -- and in recent years -- on my Amiga 1200. Beneath a Steel Sky was an amazing adventure experience 15 years ago, and holds up quite well today. Whether or not you've played the original, if you're an adventure gaming fan keep a close eye on this one. It should truly be a rare App Store gem when it makes its debut.
We'll take a closer look when the game goes live but, in the mean time, have a look at the 2003 shareware release (which was ported to the ScummVM engine), playable on most major platforms.
See the original game's five-minute intro video here. Photos in this article are from the Amiga / DOS versions of the game.
http://toucharcade.com/2009/07/30/classic-adventure-beneath-a-steel-sky-heads-to-the-iphone/
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Cool, and also for those of you who may not know, you can get it for free (legally) along with Lure of the Temptress (both for the PC though) on GOG.COM.
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Thanks for the repost. (I wrote the original article.)
I can't wait! Been playing it under whdload on the 1200 '060.
blakespot
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You know, of all the point and click adventures, Beneath an Steel Sky was my absolute favourite.
It's almost enough to get me to consider getting an iPhone. Almost.
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You know, of all the point and click adventures, Beneath an Steel Sky was my absolute favourite.
It's almost enough to get me to consider getting an iPhone. Almost.
Looks like the iphone is the new portable Amiga gaming device. :cool:
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Or if you're jailbroken you can download ScummVM from Cydia and play it for free right now (along with other games).
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Looks like the iphone is the new portable Amiga gaming device. :cool:
Hehe, maybe.
I'd consider an iPhone were it not for these three things:
I cannot justify the cost.
I think the Pre is far, far better (at least on paper)
I'd almost certainly leave it in the back of your car like I did my last phone :laughing:
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I think the Pre is far, far better (at least on paper)
Howso? It has the same internals as the iPhone basically (CPU, GPU) but no real dev kit and a store that can't possibly catch up. You want apps written in HTLM5 or in C?
blakespot
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For what it's worth, I'm currently playing "Secret of Monkey Island" on my iPhone 3GS, and it's awesome. If you do happen to have an iPhone / iPod touch, you'd be nuts to not grab a copy!
Huxley
PS Full disclosure: I work for Apple, so I'm pretty biased in favor of everyone giving Apple more money. ;-)
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For what it's worth, I'm currently playing "Secret of Monkey Island" on my iPhone 3GS, and it's awesome. If you do happen to have an iPhone / iPod touch, you'd be nuts to not grab a copy!
Huxley
PS Full disclosure: I work for Apple, so I'm pretty biased in favor of everyone giving Apple more money. ;-)
I have Monkey Island on my iPhone... it is an amazing port!!! You can swipe left and right and melt between the original gfx/audio and remastered gfx and audio! it's great :)
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I can only wish that it will be released for Android platform aswell, so I can enjoy it, too :
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You know, of all the point and click adventures, Beneath an Steel Sky was my absolute favourite.
Me too! It's one of the reasons I'm so eager to set up a hard drive in my A1200, so I can add the Amiga to my list of platforms (I believe the current list is DOS, Windows, Linux and PSP - I installed a firmware mod on the latter just to play BASS on the go) I've completed Beneath a Steel Sky on =P
(I'm much too impatient to play it from floppies)
I probably won't get an iPhone, though. I'm perfectly fine with my bog-standard mobile.
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Howso? It has the same internals as the iPhone basically (CPU, GPU) but no real dev kit and a store that can't possibly catch up. You want apps written in HTLM5 or in C?
Two words:
Tactile feedback.
As for what the apps are written in, it's irrelevant to the user so long as they work.
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Wow!!! I've been playing Beneath a steel sky solidly for the past few days... The control system is so effortless and fluid it has to be the perfect touchscreen adventure game!!!
Anyone with an iPhone/iPod touch must download it... It's only £1.79 and is brilliant!!!! I'm hoping for a port of Lure of the Temptress using the same game engine!!!!
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Howso? It has the same internals as the iPhone basically (CPU, GPU) but no real dev kit and a store that can't possibly catch up. You want apps written in HTLM5 or in C?
blakespot
No real devkit?. You didn't heard of Mojo?.
One of the advantages of the pre over the iphone are the browser, it has flash support while safari on the iphone hasn't.
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ANdroid is the Palm killer, Apple & RIM will continue to grow and eventually the smart phone market will be split evenly between RIM, Android and Apple, with a few other minor players thrown in.
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No real devkit?. You didn't heard of Mojo?.
One of the advantages of the pre over the iphone are the browser, it has flash support while safari on the iphone hasn't.
Have you seen the reviews of Flash on it? Check out the OS news article... Flash on a mobile isn't worth the trouble.