Passing Time In The Room…

When I purchased my iPad earlier this year, I set about investigating all the apps that are available to load onto it. There are many to choose from, in fact one is quite spoiled for choice, so vast and varied is the selection.

However, as my iPad has only a 16GB capacity, I can’t go overboard, and besides I’ve noticed that many of the apps I downloaded earlier in the year, I have not opened for months.

I must admit I have become addicted to my iPad, and find it a wonderful way to kill time. I check out the news every morning, as well as Facebook, Twitter and various horse racing, music and book sites.

But what has been occupying my time since last Thursday is the iPad game The Room 2.

The first game, The Room, was voted the top iPad game for 2012, and having played it I can confirm that it was well deserved. It’s a wonderfully engaging, spooky puzzle box of a game, that lends itself to the iPad perfectly, in fact it was designed specifically to run on the platform. 

The Room artwork from game creators Fireproof Games

Described as “a mind-bending journey filled with beauty, peril and mystery in equal measure…you are transported into a unique space that blends spellbinding visuals with intriguing problems to solve”

Needless to say I was sucked in by the first game and was keen to get stuck into the second, so purchased and downloaded it on the day it was released.

The Room 2 artwork from game creators Fireproof Games

The Room 2 is just as enjoyable to play as the original, and being familiar with the environment from the earlier game, I find the second game to be even more intriguing and addictive.

The good thing about the games is that they are not mindless shoot em ups, but require you to think and explore the 3D environment for clues to solving various devious puzzles. Finding one object locked away in a drawer unlocks another part of the mechanism you are trying to open. The mood of the game is rather spooky, but the images are rendered in such exquisite detail that you can almost feel the texture under your fingertips. Other puzzles require you to use the so called '”eye piece” which gives you access to another more mysterious dimension beyond the physical.

The point of the game, if there is one, is to follow the trail left by a person known only as A S who leaves various mysterious notes, giving clues as to how to go about it.  The gizmos and machines once unlocked move you closer to the path you must follow. In The Room 2, more rooms open up with more machines and objects to puzzle over. The original game took place in only one room. 

So far in The Room 2, I have reached the third chapter without having to refer to a walk through, so I’m pleased with myself at having come so far. There’s an intellectual satisfaction to be gained from solving the puzzles and moving on. There’s no imperative to speed through the game, other than curiosity as to its conclusion, so I’m savouring the game and taking my time exploring the rooms and objects as I come across them. In fact, I’m enjoying it so much I don’t want it to end.

A mysterious mechanism in The Room 2, with note from A S. Artwork from Fireproof Games.

Of course the game I am most eagerly awaiting is Tesla Effect, the new Tex Murphy computer game. It won’t be released until next year, but from what I’ve seen, or from what Big Finish Games have chosen to reveal, it looks as if it could be very special. In the meantime, I’m happy playing the clever concoctions of Fireproof Games.

The Tesla Effect

At about this time last year, I was eagerly following the progress of a Kickstarter project for a new Tex Murphy game.  The producers, Big Finish Games, reached their target with some to spare, so production of the game is in full swing and the game is likely to be released by the end of this year.

On Nikola Tesla’s birthday, 10 July, Big Finish Games released a video teaser, that thrilled the pants off this old Tex Murphy addict and announced the title of the game at the same time. It is Tesla Effect – A Tex Murphy Adventure. (see video below)

Very few details of the new game have been released, for which I am grateful. I want to be surprised, wowed and amused when I finally have the game installed on my computer, though I gather that it will be full FMV (full motion video) with an immersive 3D environment and involve multiple narrative paths ala Pandora Directive.

What Tesla has to do with the story remains a mystery, an intriguing one at that, but it got me to go and check him out. Here’s a great overview of his life and work in comic book form.

Needless to say I am keenly awaiting the completion of  Tesla Effect aka Project Fedora and really look forward to playing a new Tex Murphy game after 15 years of waiting.

The Return of Tex Murphy ?

I have mentioned before that the Tex Murphy games are my all time favourite computer games, and word is that Big Finish Games is to bring Tex Murphy back after a hiatus of fourteen years. It all depends on the success of a Kickstarter project to be launched on May 15th.

This is great news and I’ll willingly fork over some of my hard earned cash to support the project. After all I, and all the other Tex fans around the world, have been hanging out for a new game for fourteen years.

The game will be developed by the original creators of Tex Murphy, who have been around the video game scene for decades, first at Access, then at Microsoft who bought out Access in 1999. They now operate their own independent company, Big Finish Games.

So what makes these games so special?

Well, Under A Killing Moon, the first of the FMV (full motion video) Tex Murphy games, was ahead of its time, and the first truly interactive movie with a real 3D gaming environment. Not only that, it had a great story, witty dialog and was highly enjoyable to play. Set in a dystopian future San Francisco it had elements of film noir, hard boiled detective fiction and a Blade Runner futurist setting.

Under A Killing Moon was one of the first computer games I ever played, and I was hooked then and forever after. The second game The Pandora Directive only served to convince me more. It is a near perfect video game, considerably more sophisticated than Under A Killing Moon and generally acknowledged as the best of the three FMV Tex games. Tex Murphy Overseer came out in 1998 and was the first game to include a DVD version of the game as well as multiple CDs. Unfortunately, the DVD didn’t work on the computer systems of the day, or required lots of tweaking.  I never succeeded in getting it running smoothly; either the image was faulty or the sound was choppy or scenes froze and you had to reboot – very irritating to say the least.

Overseer ended on a cliff-hanger, where Tex, after accepting a lift with a stranger, is shot in the last frame with a “to be continued” postscript.

The new game, if the kickstarter is successful, will take up the story from there. The developers plan to create it in FMV as with the original games and also make use of new software developments to enhance the game play. Certainly something worth waiting for.

In the meantime, all the Tex Murphy games are available for download on GOG.com in a drm free format.  They work really well on Windows XP and probably later versions of Windows.

If you have ever played or enjoyed adventure games from the 1990s, you will want to support their return in 2010s. The 1990s was the golden age of adventure games, before they were generally cast aside by shooters and action adventure games.