Beneath a Steel Sky
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| Beneath a Steel Sky | |
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| Developer(s) | Revolution Software |
| Publisher(s) | Virgin Interactive Entertainment |
| Release date(s) | March, 1994 |
| Genre | Adventure game |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | ELSPA: 15+, ESRB: Teen, USK: 12+ |
| Platform(s) | PC:DOS, Amiga, Amiga CD32 |
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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. "Beyond The Abyss" 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.
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Story
The game takes place at an unknown time in the future within Australia, where the earth has presumably been devastated by pollution or nuclear radiation and the majority of mankind (that we know of) is forced to live in domed cities. The story is introduced by a comic book sequence by Dave Gibbons that depicts a young boy as a sole survivor from a crash landing in the Australian outback referred to in this future as simply the "gap". Unable to fend for himself the comic explains how he is raised by a local group that largely consists of Australian Aborigines whom teach him to hunt kangaroos and whom eventually name him Robert Foster due to the fact they 'fostered' him. The name is further strengthened through the discovery of an article of trash found near him when he was first encountered, most noticeably the Australian beer, Fosters.
As Robert Foster becomes a man he is eventually captured by storm troopers from "Union City", which is completely administered by an all-powerful computer called LINC. Notably Union City mentions major streets found in Australia's largest city, Sydney, lending weight to the argument that Union City is actually a future version of it.
Robert Foster, manages to escape from his captors as the helicopter transporting him 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 has a unique survivability and adaptability since his entire personality is stored on a removable circuit board, which can be easily inserted in many types of robots. This allows Joey to change bodies as the situation warrants, provided the circuit board isn't damaged. Joey, however, is not always happy about Robert'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 security service.
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
UK
- Reached number one in the GALLUP charts.
- 95% from CU Amiga (UK) with the summary "One of the greatest adventures ever".
- 94% from Amiga Format with the summary "Utterly Brilliant".
- 93% from The One with the comment "I could.... sum up the game in just one word: Superb".
USA
- 4/5 from Computer Gaming World with the summary "Very funny, very British, and very well written".
- 91% (Editors choice) from PC Gamer with the summary "A slick, funny, and absorbing adventure that will appeal to a wide variety of gamers - two thumbs up".
- In January 1995 Beneath a Steel Sky received a 'Best Dialogue' award in PC Gamer (US).
Awards
In May 1995 Beneath a Steel Sky was awarded the prestigious Golden Joystick Award for 'The Best Adventure'.
Credits
- Charles Cecil: Director, Design, Manual
- Daniel Marchant: Produced, Design
- Dave Cummins: Script, Music, Design, Manual
- Dave Gibbons: Art, Comic, Design
- Tony Williams: Music conversion & sound effects
- Noirin Carmody: Manual
Assistant Producers
Programming
Computer Graphics & Animation
Voices
Trivia
Template:Wikiquote The society of the city is a cross between Terry Gilliam's Brazil and George Orwell's 1984.
The computer system featured in the game, LINC, may refer to the Laboratory Instrument Computer.
The game came either on Floppy disk or CD-ROM with full speech (or talkie). Notably the dubbed version of the game uses actors that sport British accents despite the game being set in future Australia.
Was one of the earlier mainstream games to include the word "shit" and drawings of a women's breast.
Robert Foster appears in a comical Easter egg in Revolution Softwares game Broken Sword II:The Smoking Mirror.
The character Mrs. Danielle Piermont appears in Revolution Softwares game Broken Sword as the character Lady Piermont (and is even voiced by the same actor).
The first title proposed was "Underworld", perhaps because it was set in the land Down Under. However it was decided the name to closely resembled Origin Systems game Ultima Underworld.
In some countries (eg USA) due to copyright issues the beer label displayed in the introduction is altered to show a generic beer brand in place of the Fosters label. One of the brands read "SS IPM (RAW)", which is "warm piss" spelled backwards.
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. The data files for both the disk and CD version are available from the ScummVM website. Both versions available are the altered versions that have the Fosters beer logo removed.
LINC codes
The original floppy disk version of the game included copy protection codes which were subsequently removed in the CD-ROM versions. As a result of Beneath a Steel Sky being freeware, these codes have become public domain. When playing BASS in ScummVM, however, these codes are never needed as ScummVM has permission to bypass the copy protection even in the disk version.
- Amritah Cola Company: 704723
- Anchor Insurance: 520228
- Beaudin Beauty Salon: 293852
- Blayde´s Emporium: 293944
- Celestial Sandwich Sushi bar: 257303
- Cole Brothers Gathering: 113668
- Dreamtyme Imports: 127813
- Frank´s Fisheries: 492132
- Hammond´s Drug Store: 113322
- Hvengelmir Heating Company: 180400
- Keading Memorial Pipe Company: 520394
- Martell´s Wine & Winkle Bar: 127174
- Mudd´s meat by-products: 305662
- Nonesuch data system: 386253
- Peejays Bakery: 284764
- Richy´s Metal Heaven: 386651
- Security Services Social Club: 815931
- Sqwak Security Systems: 284291
- The Piermont foundation: 704417
- Ultars Eatery: 257925
Minimum system requirements
PC Version
- IBM 386 processor
- DOS 3.3 or above with MSCDEX
- 2 Mb RAM
- 256 colour VGA graphics
- CD ROM (CD-ROM/Talkie Version)
- Supports Adlib, Roland and SoundBlaster cards.
Sequel
Company boss Charles Cecil has said in 2004 "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." On 4th March 2004 Revolution purchased the URL http://www.steel-sky2.com, it is speculated that the game is well into the early stages of development.
It is predicted the game if released will be in 3D like Revolution Softwares latest release Broken Sword - The Sleeping Dragon.
External links
- Revolution Software (http://www.revolution.co.uk/) - game developer
- ScummVM (http://www.scummvm.org/) - game interpreter to play the game on various platforms, also the game data files are available from this site
- Beneath a Steel Sky (http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/beneath-a-steel-sky) at MobyGames.
- Beneath a Steel Sky (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0254178/) at the Internet Movie Database (IMDb).
- Windows setup (http://www.unet.univie.ac.at/~a0200586/videogames/steelsky/) - ready-to-use Windows package
- Beneath a Steel Sky on GameFAQs (http://www.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/game/565007.html) - Walkthroughs
- German Beneath a Steel Sky fan site (http://steel-sky.de.vu)
- English Beneath a Steel Sky Fan site (http://www.basszone.tk/)cs:Beneath a Steel Sky