It Came from the Desert
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| It Came from the Desert | |
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| Developer(s) | Cinemaware |
| Publisher(s) | Cinemaware |
| Designer(s) | David Riordan, Programmer: Randy Platt Writer: Kenneth Melville Producer: Pat Cook |
| Release date(s) | 1989 |
| Genre(s) | First-person adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Platform(s) | Amiga, DOS, Atari ST, Sega Genesis/Megadrive, Turbo Grafx 16 |
| Input | Keyboard, joystick and mouse |
It Came from the Desert is a 1989 computer game by Cinemaware. It was originally released for the Amiga, but later ported to other systems, as well as released in distinctly different forms to consoles.
Like most of Cinemaware's titles, It Came From the Desert takes its inspiration from Hollywood. This game is undoubtedly inspired by dozens of 1950s "B" movies, especially the 1954 mutant-ant classic Them!, It Came From the Desert is one of Cinemaware's most innovative creations. The original It Game From the Desert was nominated for SPA Game of the Year in 1990. Antheads, the sequel, won game of the year honors from Video Game and Computer magazine.
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[edit] Description
The rural town of Lizard Breath witnessed a meteor fall, and the player, the town's resident geologist, has to discover the source of some strange occurrences. Gameplay centers on the player choosing what they want to do by selecting an option on the multiple choice screens that pop up. There are several buildings in town, as well as farms, mines, an airport, and even a drive-in theater. Since time ticks away quickly at one minute per second of real time, quick decision is key to success.
Once the investigation begins, the player soon realizes there are large, mutant ants roaming around the outskirts of town. These ants are dangerous, and to survive the player must fight them with a handgun, grenades, dynamite, and insecticide used in airborne attack.
A number of minigames were activated in certain scenarios, such playing chicken, a knife fight, shooting the antennae off ants, and a top-down perspective on the player used in hospital escape missions and moving around the town on foot or in the air to attack or escape from ants.
[edit] Gallery
 Intro sequence |
 Talking to a character |
 Town map |
 Encountering an Ant |
 Talking to a character |
 Using the telephone |
 Visiting a location |
 Playing a game of chicken |
 Experiencing a nightmare |
 Escaping from Hospital |
 PC version |
 Megadrive version |
[edit] Ports
It Came From the Desert was ported to several other popular systems of the era.
As a last attempt to stay in business, Level 9 Computing ported this game to DOS in early 1991. However, this was not enough and the firm closed in June of that year.
Other ports were created for Atari ST and Sega Genesis/Megadrive in 1990. In 1992 it was released for the TurboGrafx CD, the CD-ROM peripheral of the Turbo Grafx 16. Note that the styles of play in the aforementioned console versions are distinctly different from the versions released for computer platforms, so the use of the word "port" could be construed as inaccurate.
The Sega version is an overhead shooter with the main protagonist running around on foot, and able to walk in all directions, rather than being constrained such as in games like Commando (video game). Among the differences in play mechanics, the Sega version allowed the player to create powerups that were fashioned by collecting machinery pieces and joining them together in different combinations. Note that the Sega version was never actually offered for sale; it was distributed as a ROM image (see Console emulator) from the Cinemaware website after the turn of the 21st century. Despite the similarity of camera perspective, the Sega version did not appear to reuse any of the graphical elements created for use in the computer-based versions.
The TurboGrafx CD version was also completely different from any other release. This version was a CD-ROM based game that made use of Full motion video with recorded sequences of live actors. There were also action sequences that used drawn graphical elements (not captured, as seen in games such as Mean Streets by Access Software). The side-scrolling action sequence was comprised of the player battling ants in tunnels. The TurboGrafx CD version did reuse the graphical elements from the computer version for the overhead battle sequences, but not for any of the character conversation segments. Unfortunately, this version was marred by poor quality of the video playback of the system, and the limitations of the game console hardware that resulted in side scrolling arcade sequences that were tacky in terms of gameplay. The acting in the video sequences was of B-movie quality by intention, keeping in-line with the source material that served as an inspiration for the game.
[edit] Legacy
It Came From the Desert was followed by an expansion pack called Antheads in 1990. Antheads was made available in the United States through mail order directly from Cinemaware, and on store shelves in Europe. Antheads was not a standalone game; it required ownership of the original chapter in order to play.
It Came From the Desert was considered "abandonware" for some time and distributed by web sites like Home of the Underdogs, but versions for all three platforms are now freely available from the revived Cinemaware's web site.
[edit] Trivia
- A spinoff appeared in Command & Conquer: Red Alert as four secret missions named "It came from Red Alert," where the player combats giant ants.
- It Came From the Desert was parodied in a Space Quest IV reference: the player can find the box of the game He came for the Dessert in a store, where the woman holds a cake, and a fat man replaces the ant.
[edit] External links
- The official It Came From the Desert page on Cinemaware's website
- It Came From the Desert Sega Genesis/Megadrive ROM image download page on Cinemaware's website (legal source)
- It Came from the Desert at the Internet Movie Database
- It Came From the Desert at MobyGames
