The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.
Flashback: Quest for Identity
Mr_Grinch
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
What is it?
A game I played to death on the Amiga, I have a love of Platform Action/Adventure games. Anything from Another World through to Heart of Darkness. It was released WAY back in 1992 but was later ported to CD-equipped consoles around 1994 to 95. Even the ill-fated JaguarCD got a look in.
Let's have a look at what Wikipedia has to say:
The game details the journey of Conrad B. Hart, an agent for the Galaxia Bureau of Investigation, and his attempts to recover his lost memory to save the world in the year 2142. Fitting into the cyberpunk genre, there are government conspiracies, bleak world views, and cybernetic enhancements, all squeezed into the dystopian society the game presents.
Originally advertised as a "CD-ROM game on a cartridge", the game features fully hand-drawn backdrops, and the player character Conrad's animation is rotoscoped, giving his movements a fluidity unusual for its time, similar to that of the earlier Prince of Persia. The rotoscoping technique of Flashback was invented independently of Prince of Persia, and used a more complicated method of first tracing video images onto transparencies.
Flashback is often mistaken for a sequel to Another World, an unrelated Delphine game written by Eric Chahi that also uses rotoscoped animations.
Some Pictures!
(Sorry, I can't find many decent ones)
Why make this thread?
I was hoping to find some information on it coming to Virtual Console, or being remade for XBLA. No such luck.
But today I discovered this:
http://cyxdown.free.fr/reminiscence/
A re-write of the original engine. It still requires the original Dos disks.
Platforms supported:
GP2X
GP32
Nintendo DS
Sony PSP
Sony PS2
WinCE
PalmOS
MorphOS
MacOS X
Dreamcast
Xbox
Anything else?
There was a 3D sequel based more around shooting than platforming, it was a change of pace but still pretty good. It's called Fade to Black and is available on PC and PSX, it's also popped up for download on the PSN. Personally I think it's worth the money but I know many would argue.
The creator of Flashback is also apparently hard at work on a Wii-ware game, I haven't been able to find anything concrete on what type of game though.
So, who played it and who loved it?
A game I played to death on the Amiga, I have a love of Platform Action/Adventure games. Anything from Another World through to Heart of Darkness. It was released WAY back in 1992 but was later ported to CD-equipped consoles around 1994 to 95. Even the ill-fated JaguarCD got a look in.
Let's have a look at what Wikipedia has to say:
The game details the journey of Conrad B. Hart, an agent for the Galaxia Bureau of Investigation, and his attempts to recover his lost memory to save the world in the year 2142. Fitting into the cyberpunk genre, there are government conspiracies, bleak world views, and cybernetic enhancements, all squeezed into the dystopian society the game presents.
Originally advertised as a "CD-ROM game on a cartridge", the game features fully hand-drawn backdrops, and the player character Conrad's animation is rotoscoped, giving his movements a fluidity unusual for its time, similar to that of the earlier Prince of Persia. The rotoscoping technique of Flashback was invented independently of Prince of Persia, and used a more complicated method of first tracing video images onto transparencies.
Flashback is often mistaken for a sequel to Another World, an unrelated Delphine game written by Eric Chahi that also uses rotoscoped animations.
Some Pictures!
(Sorry, I can't find many decent ones)
Why make this thread?
I was hoping to find some information on it coming to Virtual Console, or being remade for XBLA. No such luck.
But today I discovered this:
http://cyxdown.free.fr/reminiscence/
A re-write of the original engine. It still requires the original Dos disks.
Platforms supported:
GP2X
GP32
Nintendo DS
Sony PSP
Sony PS2
WinCE
PalmOS
MorphOS
MacOS X
Dreamcast
Xbox
Anything else?
There was a 3D sequel based more around shooting than platforming, it was a change of pace but still pretty good. It's called Fade to Black and is available on PC and PSX, it's also popped up for download on the PSN. Personally I think it's worth the money but I know many would argue.
The creator of Flashback is also apparently hard at work on a Wii-ware game, I haven't been able to find anything concrete on what type of game though.
So, who played it and who loved it?
Mr_Grinch on
0
Posts
sounds like uncharted is going to have some neat home integration which will include an 'another world' style 2D platformer minigame, so fans of this genre should keep an ear out for how that develops
it was such a huge deal when it came out though, and looking back i have to say i'm not surprised. the impact of this fluidity of art and animation can still be seen in today's games, not just those of the time
I'll be honest, I think it still controls fluidly. I love the old style controls of this and prince of Persia (ie you can't interupt animations so you have to time everything VERY well).
PSN: SirGrinchX
Oculus Rift: Sir_Grinch
I agree. I rented the game and loved it up until those alien levels. As someone else said, it became a roll roll shoot roll roll shoot thing.
One thing that was weird was the Sega CD version which replaced all the cutscenes with FMVs that didn't look nearly as good.
I got Fade to Black a few years later on my new, state of the art 486. I thought it was a great game, but I know now it's not looked upon too fondly by others. I still have it buried in the closet somewhere. I couldn't get it to install properly on any of my future PCs.
My Backloggery
I was amazed at the second stage. Great game.
Also, for those interested, I spotted a Heart of the Alien project similar to this. If you have the original megacd files then the engine has been recreated to run fine under Windows and a number of other operating systems.
PSN: SirGrinchX
Oculus Rift: Sir_Grinch
Very ahead in terms of depth and story line.
I would very much like to see this on XBLA.
I would also like to see a modern version of this intellectual property made into a Deux Ex style game.
3D, no platforming and completely different to flashback but I really enjoyed it! It came out on the PC too but apparently it lacked texture mapping on that (God knows why!) If you've got a PS1/PS2 or PS3 then give it a shot, it'll only be a few quid nowdays.
PSN: SirGrinchX
Oculus Rift: Sir_Grinch
That said, Flashback was definitely a bit more varied, gameplay-wise, so it probably does hold up to repeated playings better.
I was generalizing a bit there, but it's because I've been ruined by Prince of Persia Classic on XBLA. One particular maneuver, however, continues to taint my memories of the games controls. I'm talking specifically of the sections where you need to run at a wall, jump, and then rebound to a higher platform. I can do them fine in PoP, but they always frustrated me in Flashback. (The first one is right after you make your escape from the jungle via gravity belt. Damn thing takes me ten minutes everytime.)
And I really didn't like the Prince of Persia remake on XBLA, I felt them buggering around with the controls really took away the feel of the original game. No longer did I have to press UP or the jump button well before I got to the platform, and that was part of the skill of the game.
PSN: SirGrinchX
Oculus Rift: Sir_Grinch
I dunno what is was then, I just remember some jump right after the Jungle section pissing me off royal. I'd have to go back through the first hour of the game to check it for sure.
EDIT: Okay, found it. Wall jumping shenanigans were ripped strait from nowhere land and shall be shoved back into the dark corners of my mind. What I'm remembering is a Running Leap followed by another quick Running Leap. I always used to do something wrong there, not sure what, and I'm pretty sure I could do it wrong again but a quick trip to a Flashback FAQ lead me to my answer.
EDIT EDIT: I remember now! In order to execute the second Running Leap you had to start all the way backed up against the wall and then press up right as your foot hits the last possible inch of the platform before falling. I would miss time it and fall off repeatedly.
Yeah, SNES version is very unresponsive if compared to PC- or Genesis version. Furthermore, Delphine was forced to cut some stuff from the cutscenes because SNES couldn't handle them.
Ah, that explains the differing memories between Mr_Grinch and myself about the controls. I didn't know about about any cut scenes at the time, is there a site where I can check out what I missed?
Looking back, I really missed out by not struggling through, it looks fantastic, and the graphics are impressive for that era.
I'd also love to see this IP moved to current gen, could be really good with the right devs behind the wheel!
One thing that probably slowed me down and irritated me a lot more than the final level (it wasn't brilliant admittedly, but it wasn't really bad either), was the fact that level 2 was really long (or at least felt that way) and there was no way to save or any sort of checkpoint system where I could leave the game and start back at whatever point (well, at least it didn't start you back right at the very beginning if you died). You had to play for a fairly long continuous stretch to get to the end of that level. Maybe it was just me, but that slowed me down more than anything.
Yeah, New Washington went on forever.
Not so far as I know, but we are speaking about 4 seconds worth of material. What really annoyed me about SNES version was how framerate constantly dropped to 20 fps or less. On PC and Genesis, all demos were completely fluid.
Fade to Black wasn't bad, but I never got around to finishing it.
Is that where it's all roll-roll-shoot-roll-roll? Because honestly rolling around and shooting is all I remember doing in the game.
Eh, shoot roll didn't start for me until the level after that, Cyber Tower, but from that point on, oh yeah... roll-shoot-roll-shoot.