CAVES OF FEAR CD
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Developer:
Atari
Publisher:
Atari
State of completion:
Complete - CD exists and was saved from destruction by Glenn and an
anonymous friend in San Jose who rescued it from a dumpster. CD only runs
on a development system!
Genre:
Interactive Movie.
Also planned or released for:
Other GameFilms were planned, one GameFilm (American Hero) was filmed for
lots of money but never turned into a Jaguar GameFilm. A release of
American Hero for PC may be possible.
Notes:
Game is not listed in the Atari Dealer Price List Q3/1995.
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Caves Of Fear is not a game but a technology demo showing a new
interactive movie format called GameFilm. Caves Of Fear is about 10
minutes long and was shot by Atari and then turned into the demo. GameFilm
was invented by David Schwartz while working for Atari. David and Atari
hold patent #5,607,356 for this invention, the title is "Interactive game
film" and the abstract reads:
An interactive game film includes, on a video disk, data arranged in
clips representing video film segments, each clip having a lead-in
segment, a body segment, a loop segment, and a lead-out segment. Each
clip matches at least one other, so that when the clips are played in
series, the splice is seamless. The clips are displayed by a driver in
response to instructions from a game control program unique to a
particular game. The game control program provides an interface, in
the form of visible or audible subtitles containing keywords, between
a player and the driver, whereby the player can, at decision points in
the game, control which film clip is displayed next.
Check out the full length description at the US Patent & Trademark Office
(search for number 5,607,356).
Up until the Jaguar came out, all movie based games used a standard two
path possible concept. You either picked the correct sequence and
continued or you died and had to start over (i.e. - Dragon's Lair, Night
Trap, Sewer Shark). Plus there were very noticeable pauses between scenes
or decision points. GameFilm expanded on this by giving more decision
possibilities (more interactive) and using memory buffering techniques to
eliminate pauses and make the game more streamlined. There is also a
subliminal voice (low talking male voice in the background) that queues to
various decisions you can make along with text messages appearing at the
bottom of the screen of what Jack is thinking of doing. The decisions
available have various score weight in the game and will later determine
your final score and rating.
The storyline of Caves Of Fear is as follows:
You follow a CIA secret agent on a mission in Uruguay. His name is Jack
Armstrong. The movie starts out in a run down hotel where you link up with
another agent. A brief conversation starts between Jack and the agent. The
agent has a floppy disk with information on it about a white supremacist
group that is bent on taking over the world. This agent has gasoline
poured over himself and pulls a gun out and puts it to his head. He
briefly explains that he doesn't have long to live and that's its up to
Jack to complete the mission. Jack tries to stop him but he blows his
brains out. Jack then lights a match and sets him on fire.
On the way out, Jack gets jumped by two thugs. One holds him and the other
beats him unconscious. Jack later wakes up in a hospital somewhere. A
blond colored hair nurse comes in and checks his clip board. She then
notices he's awake. She offers Jack some drugs to make him feel good.
This is where you can start making decisions in the game by pressing the A
button...
Decision 1: Go for the door.
Door opens and two guards appear. Jack asks them to take him to their
boss.
Decision 2: Fight with the nurse.
Jack gets in a good fight with the nurse. You can either kill her by
choking her to death or render her unconscious. From there Jack heads to
the door and the guards appear. Jack then gets gunned down by automatic
weapons and is killed. Sometimes I think you can also end up being taken
to see the boss...but don't recall if I was able to kill her and still
continue.
Story continues with you walking down a hall way with the guards on both
sides of you. Guards are giving you a hard time about the beauty work
someone did on your face. You see various barrels of chemicals, people in
chem suits, smoke and steam throughout the hall way.
Again, a few decisions to make here:
Decision 1: Make a break for it
Jack takes a opportunity to over power the guards. Grabs a fire
extinguisher and nails both in the head and blinds one with the
extinguisher. Then makes a run for it. At this point the game ends and
gives you a rating based on the actions you took and a score.
Decision 2: Cooperate
Jack is taken to a lab where there's a doctor examining a body. This is
where you learn about this white supremacist organization and their plans
to use chemical weapons to purify the race. The game then ends giving you
a rating and score.
Glenn has run across several different rating and score endings.
There was another GameFilm that was going to be made for the Jaguar called
American Hero. The movie was done. It cost Atari a lot to have it made.
But a Jaguar version was never made. The film was written and directed by
a David Brandes. There could be a possibility of a PC version if there was
a market for it.
Today David Schwartz, the creator of Jaguar GameFilm, is the CEO of
Imaginon (http://www.imaginon.com/) and their Internet TV service
(http://www.imon.com/). David Brandes was the writer/director for the film
American Hero (that was filmed but never made into a Jaguar GameFilm;
possibility may exist for a PC release if enough interest). Scott Walters
helped with the necessary CD boot program (developer system required) to
make this game and technology discovery possible.
(from email conversation with Glenn Bruner)
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