The Daedalus Encounter
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| The Daedalus Encounter | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Mechadeus |
| Publisher(s) | Virgin Interactive |
| Release date(s) | NA 1995 |
| Genre(s) | Adventure/Puzzle |
| Mode(s) | single-player |
| Platform(s) | Windows, Mac, 3DO |
The Daedalus Encounter is a computer game from 1995. It is an adventure/puzzle game from the short-lived subgenre of interactive movies. It was distributed by Virgin Interactive, and was released for the IBM PC compatible, Apple Macintosh, and 3DO.
The game follows a trio of space marines who fought in an interstellar war: Casey (the player character), Ari (Tia Carrere) and Zack (Christian Bocher). The game opens, and the story begins, just as Casey has been brought back to life by his partners. After being in a horrible space accident, Casey's body was all but destroyed, and he is now only a brain, grafted to a small flying pod (a "Virtual Control Center"). In this new form, Casey possesses limited ability to interact with his environment, his only way to communicate being through a yes/no interface and by emitting light pulses. Upon awakening, Casey finds out that the war is over and that Ari and Zack have become pirates, stealing salvage from the war to survive. During a salvage mission, the trio crash into and are stranded on a derelict alien spacecraft, which is on a collision course with a star. It is up to Casey to help his partners and explore the mystery of the Daedalus spaceship.
In order to save themselves, the trio must explore the huge alien ship and solve a large number of Myst-like puzzles, such as connecting colored laser-beams with mirrors, playing an advanced form of connect-the-dots with a computer interface, and one combat sequence, battling aliens called Krin. The puzzles are mixed with acting sequences from Carrere and Bocher, whose interaction with the player creates some light-hearted comedy. For example, during one mission, Bocher's Zack exclaims that the dead aliens on a ship near the beginning are "ugly." Carrere's Ari responds, "Why Zack, I always thought you found them quite... attractive." To which Zack says, "Hey, I was drunk that night, okay? And you swore to me it was female."
The game is available for the 3DO, Macintosh, and PC. In the 3DO version, the video is full-screen; in the other two versions, the video is in a window inside of an organic interface. The PC version has quite a few bugs that have never been worked out. While the game wasn't a huge hit on Windows, it is still fondly remembered by some Macintosh gaming fans, as it was a part of the multimedia package that was included with the Macintosh Performa at the time.
It is said that Tia Carrere developed an oversensitivity to the color blue as a result of all the bluescreen filming involved in the game's production. According to Carrere in one interview, she specifically requested that her character be unable to be killed directly by the player.
[edit] Plot
[edit] Disk 1
The opening scene is in outer space. The year is 2135 and it's the six final days of the first interstellar war. Three spacecrafts fly past and Ari, flying one of them tells the others to keep alert. She asks Casey if there's anything on the scanners, and the scanners instantly start showing high levels of activity in the area. Just then a number of Vakkar Spider Spaceships appear before them and the war begins. Zack, Ari's parter, shoots at them using the lasers but the Vakkar spaceships just shoot back at them.
Casey starts shooting rocket missles at the ships and one of them gets hit with a massive explosion. However, the explosion causes part of the destroyed Vakkar ship to tumble through space towards them. Ari and Zack quickly eject themselves from their spacecraft just before the destroyed part of the Vakkar ship smashes into it. Unfortunately, Casey is also hit by the impact.
Everything goes black. Ari's voice is heard coming from somewhere. Ari explains that the ejection pod was hit by the debris. Casey got hit pretty bad but he is being fixed up with life support and artificial senses. Zack tells Casey to hang in there and that he will be OK.
Two months later, Zack activates the audio link and starts the system. Ari tells him to switch on the normal interface, and Zack replies, "You've got it." Ari explains to Casey that his mind has been placed a support mechanism. Zack interrupts and says, "She's trying to say you're a brain in a box, Case." Ari asks Zack if he could let her handle this, and Zack disappears offscreen. Ari allows Casey to have a look at himself — the shape of a machine, with two tubes moving up and down, simulating breathing. Ari tells Casey that he may not look the same on the outside but she knows it's him on the inside; she then asks him to respond and if he can, he is to use the virtual interface in front of him to transmit a "yes". Casey responds "yes" and Ari is pleased that it works. Zack explains that the War is over; they destroyed another Vakkar ship causing the rest of the fleet to retreat. It put Ari and Zack out of a job but War is not an enjoyable job. Zack walks over to the controls and Ari explains how Casey is now on board the Artemis, they are salvaging vessels in the Sector and that she and Zack cobbled it together with some transports. Zack adds that they also "borrowed" engines from a destroyer that was more powerful inside than outside, and that it seems only fair (where they see it) that there's a lot of cargo floating around out there, free for the taking. Ari says that they figured Casey was interested in joining them so Zack hardwired him into the ship systems. Zack tells Casey that it's good to have him back and adds in a calm to an action tone of voice, "So uh, what do you say guys? Let's do some hunting!"
