This Story Posted:
March 3rd

 
 

[12:15 PM]
Titanic For The Mac: This 'Ain't' No Sinking Ship
Simon & Schuster Interactive have made the long awaited shipping date of Starship Titanic for the Mac. The company says that the entertainment title will be in stores starting the week of March 15th. Starship Titanic was developed by Douglas Adams, the popular author of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Although the game was developed largely with Macs, development resource constraints required Mr. Adams, a noted Mac nut, and Simon & Schuster to release the Windows version first. According to Simon & Schuster:

"What has made so many people take notice of Starship Titanic? Its ability to allow players to carry on full-length conversations with the characters in the game and its breathtaking graphics. In breaking new ground, Starship Titanic introduces one of the most dynamic language processors ever, capable of facilitating entertaining conversations between the player and the game's central characters. The language engine features SpookiTalk, a revolutionary, proprietary parser tool that draws on more than 16 hours of recorded dialogue and a library of more than 10,000 popular references. The game's breathtaking photo-realistic graphics were executed under the direction of the Oscar(R) Award-winning design team of Oscar Chichoni and Isabel Molina.

Never before have the worlds of creative fiction and computer programming collided with greater impact than in Starship Titanic. The setting is a fabulous starship, commissioned and built by a distant, advanced civilization to serve as the ultimate in intergalactic transport. Majestic and luxurious, the ship features the finest in travel accommodations--elegant lounges, palatial vestibules and first class staterooms located on more than 30 decks. Like its ancestral namesake, this vessel holds the promise of infallible engineering.

Alas, on its maiden voyage the Starship Titanic crashes into the player's home. Once aboard, the player's intergalactic adventure begins. The ship is inhabited by a crew of malfunctioning robots and a semi-deranged parrot played by Terry Jones of Monty Python fame. In order to progress, the player must secure the cooperation of the parrot and learn to communicate with the ship's cast of idiosyncratic "bots" including Fentible, the distinguished Doorbot; Nobby, the hypochondriac Liftbot; Marsinta, the irascible Deskbot; and Fortillian Bantoburn O'Perfluous, the Barbot.

The player begins as a third class passenger, but quickly becomes subject to one of the most powerful forces known to man or woman--the desire for a free upgrade. As the player moves up to second and ultimately to first class, more of the ship becomes accessible and more of its mysteries are revealed. The player's challenge is to solve a series of bizarre and surreal puzzles, correct the ship's central navigation system and return to Earth before the outlandish behavior of the parrot drives him or her irrevocably mad!"

Simon & Schuster has launched a companion web site for the game. According to Simon & Schuster:

"It is designed as the web site of Starlight Travel, a fictional company which not only constructed Starship Titanic but is also its exclusive travel agency. Written in the humorous style of both Starship Titanic and Douglas Adams' novels, the site affords visitors the opportunity to survey the vast expanse of the starship and sample the unique hospitality of its crew."

Starship Titanic requires a PowerMac, 32 MB RAM and 160 MB of disk space. The game is shipping with the deluxe strategy guide (a US$20 value according to Simon & Schuster) and is shipping for US$39.95.

The Mac Observer Spin: A glorious day indeed! Starship Titanic was a big hit in the PC world and has been hotly anticipated. Mr. Adams was chastised by the fringe elements of the Mac community for not releasing the Mac version simultaneously with the Windows version, but it just wasn't possible for his company to do so. It is good to see it come out now.

Simon & Schuster Interactive