| Beneath A Steel Sky |
Article Index for Beneath |
Shopping Beneath |
Website Links For Beneath |
Information AboutBeneath A Steel Sky |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT BENEATH A STEEL SKY | |
| 1994 video games | |
| amiga games | |
| cd32 games | |
| cyberpunk | |
| dos games | |
| freeware games | |
| linux games | |
| scummvm supported games | |
| virtual reality in fiction | |
| adventure games | |
| point-and-click adventure games | |
''Beneath a Steel Sky'' is a Science Fiction , more specifically Cyberpunk , Point And Click Adventure Game with comedy elements, created by Revolution Software published by Virgin Interactive Entertainment , and initially released in 1994 for DOS and Amiga . ''"Underworld"'' was its working title. The game is made using Revolution Softwares Virtual Theatre engine and is the second game to be made using it, with the first being '' Lure Of The Temptress ''. The game's backgrounds and introduction sequence were designed by Dave Gibbons . The introduction sequence was also included as a separate promotional Comic Book in some releases of the game. STORY The game takes place at an unknown point in a Dystopia n future in Australia , where the Earth has been significantly damaged by Pollution or Nuclear Fallout . The game's backstory is introduced via a comic book, drawn by well-known comic artist Dave Gibbons , that tells the story of a young boy called Robert who is the sole survivor of a plane crash in "the Gap" (the name applied to the Australian Outback at the time of the game). Too young to fend for himself, Robert is adopted by a local group of Indigenous Australians , who teach him the skills he needs to survive in this harsh new environment; they name him Robert Foster, partly due to him being fostered by them and also because of the discovery of an empty can of Foster's Lager , the Australian beer, found near him at the crash site. After Foster has reached adulthood, he is kidnapped and his tribe annihilated by storm-troopers sent from Union City by its all-powerful computer LINC. Interestingly, Union City mentions prominent suburbs and train stations found within Australia's largest city, Sydney , leading some to speculate that Union City was once Sydney. Foster manages to escape from his captors as the helicopter transporting him back to Union City crashes just after entering the dome, leaving him and his robot friend, Joey, to find out why they were brought there and where to go next. Joey's personality is stored on a small circuit board, which can easily be inserted and removed from many types of robot bodies. This allows Joey to change bodies as the situation requires, provided his circuit board isn't damaged. Joey, however, is not always happy about Foster's choice of body for him. BACKGROUND In the future world of ''Beneath a Steel Sky'', each of the seven states of Australia have been consumed by their capital city and are described as a "City State". Union City is the second largest of the six remaining City States after the acquisition of Asio-City. Notably ASIO is Australia's national Intelligence Agency . After the 'Euro-American War' all participants agreed upon a set of ideals described as the 'neo democratic principles' which removes all labour representation and social benefits. Ironically those that subscribe to these principles are called 'Unions' contrasting the real world definition of what a Union pushes for. Those that oppose the Unions ideals are called 'Corporations'. All of the City States are described as either being Corporations or Unions. The back-story involves a conflict between Union City and Hobart Corporation fighting over 'market' dominance by the use of Sabotage which is used as a common theme throughout the story. Hobart is the capital city of the Australian state Tasmania . CRITICAL ACCLAIM The games initial release in the UK was met with critical acclaim, reaching the number one place in the GALLUP charts and receiving;
The release in the USA was met with almost equal success with;
In May 1995 ''Beneath a Steel Sky'' was also awarded the prestigious Golden Joystick Award for 'The Best Adventure'. CREDITS
Assistant Producers Programming Computer Graphics & Animation Voices TRIVIA s.]]
LEGAL SITUATION In August 2003, the game was released as Freeware and support for it was added to ScummVM , allowing it to be played on Windows , Mac OS X , Linux , Windows CE and other compatible operating systems and platforms. The data files for both the disk and CD version are available from the ScummVM website. The files on the ScummVM website do not include the original program executables since they are not needed by ScummVM. Though not included, these executable files are also legally distributable now. SEQUEL ''Beneath a Steel Sky 2'' is a project Revolution has been considering for a while, and has started to move forward on, but we are unable to comment beyond this,” company boss Charles Cecil said in 2004. On March 4 2004 , Revolution purchased the Domain Name steel-sky2.com . If released, the game will likely be in 3D , like Revolution Software’s latest release '' Broken Sword — The Sleeping Dragon ''. Revolution announced ''Broken Sword 4'' in August 2005, so the sequel won’t be published soon. But in September 2005 Tony Warriner stated in Revolution’s forum that the game wasn’t cancelled, and that he would not lose hope that there would be a ''Steel Sky 2'' at some point in the future. REFERENCES
EXTERNAL LINKS
|
|
|