I doubt that the average gamer appreciated the amount of research that went into creating the environments in the Cryo historical games, but I always found them interesting. In the case of Egypt 1156 B.C. I thought the encyclopedia was the best part of the game. I liked being able to click on strange objects and find out what they were and how they were used.

I missed the built-in encyclopedia in Kheops' later games. Other than Echo: Secrets of the Lost Cavern and The Egyptian Prophecy I don't remember any Kheops games having a built-in encyclopedia, but it's been a long time since I played them. I don't think either Nostradamus or Secrets of Da Vinci included a built-in encyclopedia, even though they were historical. I don't remember Cleopatra: A Queen's Destiny having an encyclopedia either, but I can hardly remember that game at all. Kheops games based on Jules Verne novels might not be exactly "historical," but they could have included a discussion of real 19th century technology vs the imaginary futuristic technology seen in the novels -- or a comparison with science fiction novels by other 19th century authors who wrote about similar themes.

***Web Archive of Kheops game list***

Yes, that's sad, but at least we still have the old ones to play, also thanks to your efforts!

Thanks again for your comments, Jenny and Iurii! Yes, it's true that Kheops extended the Jules Verne stories to what might have occurred given the technical knowledge of the era, the same way as Syberia was consistent if steampunk robotics had had its way.

You know, that's why I wrote my review for Atlantis II on this board the way I did. Nearly all the reviews I'd seen, even the thorough and glowing ones, boiled down to praise for the stunning locations, the lifelike characters, the great graphics and haunting music, all of which created this engrossing atmosphere. But they always added some barbs about the silly plot and random riddles. I wanted to redress that balance a bit.

The way the historic supernova informed and linked the separate stories was completely ignored, just as the legends of Atlantis that were cited, by the way. And of course, the origin of the Crab Nebula would be treated by Cryo as true as they could to the medieval setting, not from the present point of view. You wouldn't have some old sage or authority exclaim: "Ah, that's a marvellous exploding star outside our solar system, let's study it for scientific purposes!". Instead, they would try to cope with it in terms of their gods and myths, and see them as evil or hopeful portents.

I'm not a stickler for authenticity and detailed encyclopedia, but I often feel that the game world is too slanted to fantasy adventures or rather battles in the post-Tolkien vein, which feature any number of wizards, knights, elves, gnomes, ghosts, trolls, talking animals, and even dinosaurs, zombies, aliens or robots in any combination, which often feels totally haphazard and irrelevant.

A good story, rooted in a recognizable era, location, a plausible technology or a coherent moral universe often comes as a very welcome relief to me in that sense! Let's hope it won't be ignored completely!

Best,

Rich

Well, Cryo always tried to make a distinction between 'Historic adventures' and 'Legends'. But you are right Rich - I also think that the ancient China presented in 'Atlantis II' is more interesting and even authentic than China in proper 'China' the game, because reconstructing mythology and legends of an epoch is no less important than reconstructing its material heritage!

I have also always wondered why some reviewers did not see how logical puzzles in 'Atlantis II' are. As the logic of medieval-poetical Christian Ireland or medieval-mythological China does not have to be equal to the modern Western-European logic Thanks to Johan Robson who was the mind behind those 'legendary' stories and puzzles!

Hi Iurii!

Thanks for the reference to Johan Robson! I'd never paid attention to him, and now I read on MobyGames about all the work he has done, and that he is ... Dutch, or at least he appears to be, even though his name suggests a mixture of Dutch, Scandinavian and British roots! Perhaps I felt an intuitive kinship there?

I take my hat off to him!

Rich

Rich, do you speak French by the way?
Maybe then you can play another Johan Robson's game called 'L'Ange et le Demon' and tell us about it
It is not by Cryo, but it pre-dates its historical/mythological series and takes place in Mont-Saint-Michel.
Unfortunately it was published only in French and only on Philips CD-i console.

Hi Iurii,

As a matter of fact I do speak French, though it's not a language that comes naturally to me, in other words, it takes some effort.

I don't know about the game you mentioned, and though it sounds interesting, I don't have a CD-i at my disposal! Oh, those CD-i's, one of Philips' great innovations that were abandoned almost as soon as they were introduced, in this case only 5 years later!

I think the folks at Philips were, once more, too technically advanced (and too slow on the marketing uptake) for their own good: the device could play low-res digital movies, but not that easily, when people were still using their video players, they had no experience creating games, so they were mostly substandard (apart from Burn:Cycle and Lost Eden I guess), and the controls were not very well thought out, and they'd even thought of video-on-demand and online shopping when the concept and indeed the internet itself were still in their infancy.

Anyway, to stay on topic, I have come across a French Cryo game from 1997 I'd never heard of. If I hadn't had the great, unique, wildly diverse 'Obscura' soundtrack CD by Pierre Estève, I'd never found out. I actually asked the people at Shooting Star about it, but they didn't reply, which made me think it was an unrealized game. On the CD-ROM section of the disc, it said this is the soundtrack to Deuxième Monde: Légendes Souterraines (even with a spelling error).

Well, it turns out that Deuxième Monde (Second World) was an online game, or rather an alternative universe, in this case of Paris, which was apparently the first of its kind, predating the similarly titled Second Life by 6 years! It came with a DOS-based game, which traced this virtual community to its legendary subterranean ("légendes souterraines") origins. In a storyline a bit similar to Atlantis, you are the restorer of light to the banished souls of the underworld, which is lost in obscurity, surrounded by the cities of light. I wonder if anyone from this community has ever played this before?

I managed to install the game in a DOS box within a Windows 95 emulator. It looks more like an action game to me, you have to fight enemies by collecting protection and armour as well as various lights, but the controls are kind of sketchy to me now, and I don't have a lot of time to play games right now!

But it does look like a unique atmosphere, great surrealist watercolour artwork (which is used in the game, not digitally rendered), steampunk technology and such. I'll definitely play it at some point!

Rich

Rich, I edited your post. It is against GameBoomer policy to download abandonware or to link to an abandonware website.

Rich, thanks for the info!

I have never played or seen 'Deuxième Monde', but I once visited 'Venice' as a tourist - I mean another online MMO-adventure by Cryo. That was great game - you actially had to live in Venice in the year of 1499 amongst other people, trading arts, participating in elections etc.

But Cryo online worlds is the one thing that does not exist anymore. I have even bought a box of that game while knowing it does not and will never work

Thanks a lot for this information Iurii! I recently tried the DVD version of Atlantis III on my Windows 7 comp but failed to get it running (didn't try too hard though, only a couple of compatibility settings to no avail). Noticed that the DVD is like 7,5 Gb large and figured there must be some higher quality graphics on there compared with the CD/GOG-version but could not find any information on the internet. I will try to use the hi-res stuff from the DVD with the GOG-version when I eventually play this game.

To me, the Atlantis games were pretty much the only decent stuff to come from Cryo as a developer, at least after the mid 90's. Only played the first two in the series so far though. The Egypt, Aztec, Versailles and Pompeii etc. games are real stinkers imo. Edutainment at its worst. It feels like they researched all the facts and created the locations first and only tacked on a simple story as an afterthought. The Atlantis series feel much more built with the story as the starting point.

Loved Faust (Seven Games of the Soul) though, but that was developed by another company and only published by Cryo.

I can see your point, Frazap! Up to a point . I guess it all depends on what you are looking for in games. For most people outside this site, gaming equals violent action, so any of these games would strike most people as incredibly boring, but even as an adventure gamer I agree that the Atlantis series were the most imaginative, and the others you mention, apart from Faust, were more history-driven and educational.

Though I do feel parts of Pompeii were rather weak or forced, as my review tries to point out, I really liked (and still do) the part of wandering around the city in visitor mode, or reading from the encyclopedia, just like Versailles or Aztec, but that's because I'm a history buff!

Rich

Hi all
Just came across this and still reading through. I remember well my first Cryo game and the impression it made.
Will post when have looked at and absorbed all the interesting stuff in the thread

Hi Flotsam,

This discussion of Cryo games sprang from a review of their Odyssey game I had posted.

It was split up because it veered off both towards a more general discussion of Cryo games, and patches and tricks for running them on more recent platforms.

Just sayin'!

Rich

According to Mobygames and the PAGODA database, "Pompeii" (aka "Timescape") was developed by Arxel Tribe, not Cryo. So "Pompeii" has the same developer as "Faust," "Pilgrim," "Legend of the Prophet," "Ring" 1 and 2, "Hitchcock: The Final Cut," "Jerusalem," and "Casanova: Duel of the Black Rose."

I didn't care much for the "game" part of "Pompeii" because of limitations to the locations you were allowed you to explore. Parts of the gameworld were only accessible during certain parts of the game. Exploration felt restricted (compared to "Versailles," for example). For someone who is interested in what "Pompeii" looked like before the eruption of Vesuvius, the "visitor mode," where you can go where you want, could be better than the game.

"Pompeii" also had fewer interactive hotspots than early historical games developed (or co-developed) by Cryo, where you could click objects to find out what they were and how they were used, or click characters to find out who they were and/or what their role in society was. For example, "Versailles 1685," "Egypt 1156 B.C.," and "Aztec" (aka "Sacred Amulet") had many of these "educational" hotspots. In later games, like "Egypt 2: The Heliopolis Prophecy," the amount of interactivity for educational purposes was reduced and more attention placed on characters and story.

I don't think fans of adventure games and fans of historical adventure games are exactly the same audience. For fans of historical adventures, simply being able to visit the historical locations adds a very important dimension to the game that is not of great interest to adventure gamers who don't care so much about the historical aspects.

Hi Rich
To complete the circle then, here is my review from a very long time ago. Was from the old Quandary magazine, all of which shifted to this site when Quandary closed.
Interesting to read again.
flotsam

Very well put, Jenny!

I agree with everything you said. I don't consider myself a full-on historical gamer, having enjoyed Atlantis and Syberia a lot. I do tend to look for some inner storytelling logic, be it historical or fictional. Games that feature a host of historical, religious or horror/fantasy characters from any era or source thrown together, or games where every place you try to enter is blocked by some slider puzzle or arcade game simply don't appeal to me. Too 'random'!

Rich

Hi Flotsam,

Thanks for the reference! I'd actually read your detailed review before writing mine, but I didn't know it was you!

I agree pretty much with all that you said, it still holds, so while I came to similar conclusions as you, I tried not to duplicate too much and instead concentrate on the mythological aspects.

Rich

What an excellent walk down memory lane in this thread! I really enjoy reading through these and hearing everyone's thoughts and memories of Cryo and Arxel Tribe. There are a lot of games from their catalogue I've yet to try. It sounds like a lot of them need a lot of tweaking to work well on newer computers. Good thing this is one of the most helpful communities I've come across for tech troubleshooting and locating old and moldy patches.

I see that in difference from, say. LucasArts, there are people who love Cryo games - and many people who don't

I can only say I like almost all of their games (except some later titles like 'Nautilus'), both historical and 'legendary' (as 'Atlantis') - and developed by Arxel Tribe as well.

It is even more interesting if you are able to visit the game locations in real world - for now, I have visited only the Forbidden City (in Beijing), Versailles and Pompei (and Capri of 'A Quiet weekend on Capri'/'Anacapri the Dream' fame - but that's another story)...

Inspired by this thread, I decided to make another attempt to play Atlantis. However, after just a few minutes when first my character kept asking the guard if the consort was in the castle and then listening to a guard of what appears to be a pyramid-like structure respond with a distinct Scottish accent, I just couldn't rationalize the incongruity and gave up.

Try Atlantis 2 or Atlantis 3.
The first one had too many annoying guards.

I agree with Jenny100

The 2nd and 3rd Atlantis games were much better than the 1st - and definitely worth a play

You gave up after just a few minutes?! You even missed the scene of the crime? Just continue for another few moments, and watch the game open up to different locations.

And as an appetizer, if you have VLC media player (freeware!), make a playlist of the soundtrack on the disk, just to get into the mood - and get an idea of what you missed. Off the top of my head, they are the *.apc-extension files located in the directory of the same name.

Rich

Yeah, I know- it's not fair to the game to give up so quickly. It was the Scottish accent...

But I'm going to try loading up Atlantis 2 next.

One thing I liked about Arxel Tribe, and a few of the other developers/publishers back in the day, is that they would include various little freebies in the boxes for orders directly from their stores. I still have an Arxel Tribe pen they sent me from years back, and probably a few other little things.

lakerz, it is interesting, never heard of it, thanks.
Maybe you have some pictures of those items?

Never heard of this either, Lakerz. It really sounds interesting! The only things I've come across so far are extras you would expect to find for movie DVDs, like Making of's, stills, artwork, booklets, wallpapers and screen savers.

And some scattered action figures from other companies, of course.

Rich