TurboPlay Magazine # 07  ( June / July 1991 )

One of the neatest items in this issue is the feature on "It Came From the Desert" (ICFTD), one of the most ambitious TG-CD games ever released. Cinemaware had already made great versions of the game for IBM PC, Atari ST and Commodore AMIGA platforms (and later ported it to Sega's Genesis), but the TG-CD version is truly the bastard-child in this lineage. For some reason, the decision was made to remake the game into an FMV (full-motion video) extravaganza. In this article we get to see a sneak peak of the actual filming of the FMV sequences. Yay! FMV was all the rage at this time and I am not ashamed to admit that I was eager to see what all the hullabaloo was about.

Now, if you've ever played the TurboGrafx-CD version of ICFTD, you'll notice how limited TG-16's FMV capabilities were, especially when compared to the original footage documented in this article (look at the video monitors in the photos as a reference). However, when you consider the constraints of the TG-16 and TG-CD hardware (an 8-bit CPU with limited RAM), ICFTD is a technically impressive game that squeezed all it could from NEC's stalwart console...

Continued below...

MARK KORMAN: FMV ACTOR

Unfortunately, not much is known about Mr. Korman. Most likely, his career was swift and short. In addition to playing Sonny in ICFTD, he might have appeared in one short film in 1992 -- as "Janitor # 3":

TurboPlay: "What's it like starring in a video game?"

Mark Korman: "Well, it's different. It's a lot like film except the players (other actors) aren't in the scene with you, so you're basically speaking to the camera. And the preparation is different, because the script is non-sequential, so there's a lot of slashing dialogue, making it more difficult to memorize your lines."

TurboPlay: "What do you think this will mean for other actors? Will this be something they'll want to get into?"

Mark Korman: "Oh, definitely. This type of acting will prepare young, aspiring actors for the feeling you get when you're up in front of a camera, and you know that every minute, every second, is costing money, which is something you can't get in acting school. Not to say this isn't really acting, it's just a looser atmosphere than in the other jobs I've done."

 VIEW SOURCE

Needless to say, I would love the opportunity to interview anyone involved in the production of ICFTD for TG-CD. But will anyone admit to being involved in an FMV game? That's the question... Δ

ICFTD: A TECHNICAL FEAT

Back in the day, FMV was often discussed as if it were a virtue unto itself (not unlike contemporary discussions of polygon counts, transparency effects, etc.). These discussions quickly lost sight of the most important issue: is the game enjoyable to play? To quote from a future review of ICFTD (see TurboPlay #10, December 1991 / January 1992):

"On the graphic side, this is as close to the cutting edge of technology as you can get: full-motion video running at ten frames a second, no pausing or hesitation in speech or action and very little interruption between scenes. The game consists of one full hour of video, 180 video sequences and 50 background plates."  VIEW SOURCE 1 2

As is evident, this reviewer (Donn Nauert) gushes all over ICFTD's technical attributes. He goes on to praise the title song (which does, indeed, kick ass) and points out that, in total, there are 500 voice-over tracks and a 20-song Red Book Audio soundtrack. Notwithstanding these impressive technical feats, it is my duty to inform you that ICFTD for the TG-CD is a hugely flawed game (in particular, and ironically, the action-oriented mini-games strike me as unpolished demos with horrid controls). That said, ICFTD certainly deserves some love for attempting to do FMV on very limited hardware.

TurboPlay: "Do you think this will be the wave of the future, and that we will be seeing more games done like this?"

Michael Lizesay (Programmer for ICFTD): "Definitely. It's a hot new wave, and this is the start of it all. I don't think game players will want to go back to the old arcade style of game once they have played games that use real actors, real backgrounds and more dramatic effects that can be found in CD-ROM games."

 VIEW SOURCE

Truly prophetic words from Mr. Lizesay. While we may snicker now, we have to keep in mind that the folks behind these FMV games truly thought they were innovating the video game industry. And so, in an oddly twisted way, the TG-CD version of ICFTD deserves some love for trying something different and not simply re-hashing the original game. While I would have loved to see a more straightforward port of the Amiga version appear on TG-CD, I am slowly beginning to appreciate the FMV fiasco we ended up with. The TG-CD version is truly unique, since it was one of those rare instances when a company totally revamped an existing game to convert it to an FMV game. Also, I should point out that not everyone despises this TG-CD title.

It turns out that ICFTD has a small cadre of fans in the Turbo community. Bless them. I've yet to join them fully, but I'm getting there. Slowly. Disclosure: I absolutely cherish "Sea of Love", the title song from ICFTD. It kicks my ass. Δ

DAVE RIORDAN & CINEMAWARE'S DEMISE

ICFTD might have been a vastly better game if it weren't for its troubled development history, which was directly related to Cinemaware's ongoing financial troubles. Dave Riordan -- the fellow who spearheaded the original computer incarnations of ICFTD -- was overseeing the TG-CD game development, so I have little reason to suspect that his talent was lacking. Rather, I believe that budget and time constraints severely compromised Riordan's original vision. When Donn Nauert interviewed Mr. Riordan, Cinemaware was on the verge of bankruptcy. By the time the article was printed, the once mighty Cinemaware had ceased to exist:

"With the recent news of Cinemaware closing its doors, many video-game players thought that would mean the end of Cinemaware games that are not yet finished, especially those for the TurboGrafx-16. We're happy to say that NEC will take over all of Cinemaware's projects for the TG-16 that are under way. That means TV Sports: Basketball, TV Sports: Baseball, TV Sports: Hockey, It Came From the Desert and Lords of the Rising Sun are all in the works."  VIEW SOURCE

Cinemaware's demise abruptly left ICFTD and several TV Sports titles in a lurch. NEC North America decided to finish these stalled projects (by contracting out the work to another developer, perhaps?). Who knows how this final batch of games would have turned out had Cinemaware remained solvent. Δ

BONK TO STAR IN SEQUEL, NEC SLASHES PRICES

After all these years, I still remember reading the preview of PC Genjin II (Bonk's Revenge) in this issue. The game had yet to be finished, but I couldn't wait. I drooled over the screenshots. This was rather funny because I wasn't the biggest fan of the Bonk series, but the dearth of platformers in the TG-16 library ensured that PC Genjin II would be a highly anticipated title. Don't get me wrong, I love Bonk, but I always wished that the games had more depth and were more challenging. Still, the sequel promised to be a blast, so I was stoked.

If you were curious as to how expensive TG-16 hardware was during the summer of 1991, you'll be interested in this blurb that was thrown into the table of contents at the last moment:

NEWS FLASH !

As TurboPlay was being completed, we received word that the prices for parts of the TG-16 line were being dropped. The basic system will now be priced at $99.99; a Bonk SuperSet (the TG-16 system, two TurboPads, a TurboTap and a copy of Bonk's Adventure) will go for $149.99; and the cost of the TurboGrafx-CD will drop to $299. We'll have more on the breaking story next issue of TurboPlay.  VIEW SOURCE

... and sure enough, the next issue of TurboPlay had a page devoted to this price drop. Not that it warranted an entire page, mind you, since everything you needed to know had been sufficiently relayed in the blurb above. These prices would steadily decline over the next year, with the TG-16 console dropping to $69.99 and the TG-CD settling at $149.99 prior to TTi's launch for the DUO.

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