The SW Saga of 1975: ATM's Take — Page 4

Like the stroke of a scythe?

Or a stroke of good fortune?

Or like the stroking of a cat's ears?

"All of them at once," said Bilbo.

I suppose so.

Regular programming will resume in 6 hours.

Meanwhile, back in Space Quest IV...

"She was very beautiful, wasn't she?"

--Roger Wilco, Jr.

"Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!"

--The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, in The Wizard of Oz (one of the original inspirations for the Doctor on Doctor Who)

Wait a minute... are those hair buns?

BEHOLD!

"I have a very bad feeling about this."

--Bobbin Threadbare, LOOM

(Bobbin, the Red Bear?)

"Exit, pursued by a bear."

--William Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale

Screenshot from an early version of Space Quest III, with "the Empire sucks!" graffiti on the side of a TIE fighter...

...and a green bear following Roger Wilco around.

Screenshot from an early version of Brian Moriarty's The DIG, showing two different types of crystals: green and red. (Source: Joystick magazine #40, July 1993)

Screenshot from the same magazine, representing Noah Falstein's version of The DIG, with two astronauts.

Chaos out of Order. Order out of Chaos.

Opening Lucasfilm Games logo, The Secret of Monkey Island (EGA version)

Opening Lucasfilm Games logo, The Secret of Monkey Island (VGA version)

Screenshot, Monkey Island II

Bronze version of the Lucasfilm Games logo, used only in the Amiga port of The Secret of Monkey Island

Title screen, EGA version of The Secret of Monkey Island

Starting screen of the EGA version of Monkey Island 1, showing a sunset which was removed in the VGA version, to match the title screen.

Original title screen, The Secret of Monkey Island

Lucasfilm Games logo from the January 1990 Winter CES demo of LOOM (not used in the actual game)

Unused LucasArts logo, found in the resource files of the talkie CD version of LOOM

Blank space left for a logo in room 001 of the resource files of Sean Clark's The DIG.

"An early version of the museum in Sean Clark's Dig, with six alcoves containing visual records of events instead of four."

--quoted from ATMachine's House of LucasArts and Sierra Oddities

Final version of the museum background in Sean Clark's The DIG, showing only four TV-style alcoves.

Background for the first museum room--or, perhaps, the library--in Brian Moriarty's The DIG.

The same museum background, with the crystal pyramid (probably a recording device of some sort) inserted into the computer.

Screenshot representing the five different gameplay paths (and six different choosable characters, including Ken Borden and Cora Miles) in Brian Moriarty's The DIG

"We're gonna need a bigger boat."

--Quint (Robert Shaw), JAWS, 1975 (directed by Steven Spielberg)

Chaos: Obtained!

Continuity: Preserved!

Time Rip: Opened!

Recalled to Life: The DIG!

...

"Take me home to."

--The talking Dangling Participle (incorrectly named), King's Quest VI

"Go back now, human. Take me home."

--The DIG

...

"Thanks for playing Space Quest IV."

--Ending of Space Quest IV (CD version)

 "Thanks for playing Space Quest IV. We hope it's been as entertaining as you have."

--Ending of Space Quest IV (disk version with better graphics and the missing-points bug fixed)

...

"You're just in time to witness the dawn of a new era."

--PenUltimate Apostle of the Antisecular Conclave of Clerics, LOOM

Don't worry, it'll all be over soon, I promise.

Now then...

"On the other side, Chaos followed my example."

--Memoirs of Bobbin Threadbare: Loom-Child (AKA the walkthrough in the LOOM hint book)

"Things fall apart, the center cannot hold,

Mere anarchy is loose upon the world."

--"The Second Coming," poem by William Butler Yeats

"Speak."

--The Creator, The DIG

"I don't need any more green."

--Ludger Brink, The DIG novelization, by Alan Dean Foster

How about some red crystals then?

(See above screenshot.)

Nothing up my sleeve...

Here goes!

"Long after the passing of the Second Shadow, when dragons ruled the twilight sky and the stars were bright and numerous, came the age of the Great Guilds."

--marketing copy on the back of the box, LOOM (by Brian Moriarty)

"A great shadow has departed."

--Gandalf the White, The Lord of the Rings, Book VI, chapter four: "The Field of Cormallen"

All prams lead to the Kensington Gardens.

--finale of TRINITY, by Brian Moriarty

"What rough beast, its hour come round at last,

Slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?"

--Gabriel Knight 1 demo, quotation opening for Day 1

"I don't know. We'll find out!"

--Henry Jones, Sr. (Sean Connery), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (directed by Steven Spielberg)

"The last leaf of th' fall."

--Bobbin Threadbare, LOOM (written by Brian Moriarty and Orson Scott Card; reforged by Andrew McCarthy)

"The first leaf of spring."

--Bobbin Threadbare, The FOLD (written by Orson Scott Card and Brian Moriarty)

COMING SOON to a monitor screen near you.

I don't know how else I can say this, so I'll just leave this link here. Please, go read it. But try not to gloat too much when you do. That's not very nice, after all.

And for those of you who don't like clicking links, I'll just ask you this:

Didn't you ever wonder where the name "Michael Kaminski" (webmaster of SaveStarWars.com) comes from?

It's a pseudonym.

Janusz Kaminski is a favorite cinematographer of Steven Spielberg.

And The Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is a British order of knighthood.

Bingowings said:

I was watching the un-aired pilot for Lost in Space last night and I was struck by how the design of the thing and the superb (for their day) production values reminded me of some of the design drawings for the first two films. It also reminded me of some the Archie Goodwin strips.

The show in general may have had some sort of influence maybe after the first film had been shot.

Jonathan Harris and Anthony Daniels do sound similar which might have influenced Lucas to drop the oily car salesman voice he was going to dub over the footage and it's not that huge a leap from a chimp with big ears to Yoda.

 One of the uncredited production designers on Forbidden Planet, also worked on LIS.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Kinoshita

So Robby and B-9 essentially have the same father. The robot's role on show as comedy relief, having human mannerisms, and often helping saving the day certainly is a forerunner to that of Artoo and Threepio.

It was the success of Star Wars that actually got talk of a LIS reunion movie going. (Billy Mumy even penned a script.) But the rights to the show were once as tangled as the Batman series was, and producer Irwin Allen never really got on board.

Jonathan Harris did lend his voice to a robotic character on the original Battlestar Galactica.

ATMachine said:

 

 Nice American Graffiti reference! Ford's character in AG was named Bob Falfa.

DominicCobb said:

ATMachine said:

I don't know how else I can say this, so I'll just leave this link here. Please, go read it. But try not to gloat too much when you do. That's not very nice, after all.

And for those of you who don't like clicking links, I'll just ask you this:

Didn't you ever wonder where the name "Michael Kaminski" (webmaster of SaveStarWars.com) comes from?

It's a pseudonym.

Janusz Kaminski is a favorite cinematographer of Steven Spielberg.

And The Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is a British order of knighthood.

What are you implying? I hope you are aware that he used to be a fairly active poster here.

 You'll see. But you'd probably figure it out faster if you read that link.

Time for one last bit of acting.

What shall it be?

I know!

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

--Arthur C. Clarke

Let's play a text adventure!

> cd wrldsend

> wrldsend

Loading... Please Wait

Space. An Earthlike planet dominates the field of view. Earthlike--but not Earth. The clouds have a violet tint from the reflected sunlight, deepening to a dusky purple at the planet's terminator.

Suddenly, from behind the P.O.V., a spaceship zips by with a "swoosh," scaling down towards the planet.

Cut to planetscape. A few plants are in the foreground, giving way to a vast desert plain, with mountains in the distance. The sky is an odd shade of violet. In the foreground, a six-limbed alien is eating--leaves?--from a--bush?

A rumbly "whoosh" sounds overhead, distracting the creature. It turns its head, tracking the spaceship as it comes in over the plain. The screen scrolls with the ship, which is obviously slowing (and not just because of the scrolling!). The animal in the foreground scrolls off, and the ruins of a long-abandoned city scroll on.

The ship settles down to land nearby, in a cloud of dust.

Roll opening credits:

THE WORLD'S END

An Adventure in Space and Time

By Noah Falstein, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and Dave Grossman

(with additional programming by Andrew McCarthy)

Version 3.4, released 03/23/2015

Our story starts in the control room of a battered passenger and cargo-hauling starship. She's a small ship, only 20 standard cargo tons capacity, and she's seen better days.

You were recruited for this mysterious mission by a tall, handsome man who looked like he came straight off of a recruiting poster for the Interstellar Corps. But given your own background, his promise of high pay--in cash--and his reluctance to answer any questions, it seems rather likely he comes from a rather less reputable organization.

"Call me Major Tom," he says, with a wry smile. And so you do.

The time is the future, nearly eighty years since the McKillip Drive made faster-than-light travel a possibility, and only 50 years since the first star colonies were founded. Following the information sent by an unmanned probe, "Major Tom" has sent you and a team (to use the term loosely) of two to the planet Ozymandias. [See the World's End game manual for the character biographies.]

Major Tom fills you in on the mission. An automated probe found the planet, went into orbit, and sent down several rover vehicles to explore. Like quite a few of the hundreds of planets that have been discovered, there was native life. But one thing was strikingly new.

The first rover came down in a desert area, and promptly found artifacts, apparently constructed by alien intelligences. Among the first things found was the ruins of an immense statue, prompting the naming of the planet.

The other rovers also found artifacts and ruins. But no intact cities. And no obvious signs of intelligent life that were less than centuries old.

The planet is also seething with life in a variety of shapes and sizes. Many of the larger creatures are six-limbed, but a diversity of other forms adds to the mystery of the planet.

Finally, after only a short survey, all three of the autonomous rover vehicles ceased transmitting. The orbital probe returned with the results.

------

"This team," you say, "is tasked with investigating this planet by... my superiors. I don't need to explain to either of you the potential importance of this discovery."

"Or the potential profit." The speaker is a tall, good-looking man who, defiant of considerable odds to the contrary, has no scar on his chin.

"That's right, Terasov," you say. "You'll all be well paid."

"Major?" The beautiful redheaded woman speaks up in an oddly accented musical tone. "Why are we here? Terasov and me, I mean. For such an important mission, why not use a government or corporate team?"

You smile, but a twitch of your right eyebrow reveals tension under control. "Fox, let's not waste time with too many unnecessary questions. That will all be made clear presently."

You turn and open a locker. "Both of you get into your environment suits. Let's take a look around. Remember the safety drill."

They don their suits and follow you into the airlock. "All right," you say. "We don't know what's waiting for us on the other side of this hatch. We've got to be prepared for anything, and I want proper military organization so as to avoid any screw-ups. Consequently, I'm going to appoint a second-in-command."

Terasov has engineering knowledge and language skills.

Fox has biological knowledge and hunting skills.

But both of them have a little leadership potential.

Which one will you choose, Commander?

[Note to players: Whichever character you choose to be second-in-command will be the one you play during the rest of the game.]

> save

Game saved in slot 1. Type RESTORE to load this saved game.

> _

...

Game saved in Slot 2.

>quit

Are you sure you want to quit? (y/n)

> n

> quit

Are you sure you want to quit? (y/n)

> y

Thanks for playing THE WORLD'S END! See you next mission.

> cd kq1new

> sierra

"This isn't a text adventure!"

Oh, sorry. My bad.