Outer World (Jpn) - アウター・ワールド
Another World, also known as Out of This World in North America and Outer World (アウターワールド) in Japan, is a 1991 cinematic platformer action-adventure game designed by Eric Chahi for Delphine Software. The game tells a story of Lester, a young scientist who, as a result of an experiment gone wrong, finds himself in a dangerous alien world where he is forced to fight for his survival.
Originally developed on an Amiga for the Amiga, Atari ST, Apple IIGS and DOS platforms, the game was widely ported to other contemporary systems. Later efforts resulted in several game engine recreations for the game that permitted it to run on modern computers, consoles and mobile phones. In 2006, Chahi independently released a 15th Anniversary Edition for Windows which allowed the game to be played on modern computers with original or enhanced visuals; following up in 2011 for its 20th anniversary, ports of the game were prepared for iOS and Android based devices.
Another World was highly innovative in its use of cinematic effects in the graphics and cutscenes. This cinematic style granted the game a praise amongst critics and a commercial success, and influenced a number of other video game designers.
Another World is a platform game, featuring a control scheme wherin the player uses either the keyboard, joystick or gamepad to make the protagonist run, jump, attack and perform other, situation specific actions such as rocking a cage back and forth. In the initial part of the game, Lester is unarmed, as he is able to kick at small creatures but is otherwise defenseless.
Later in the game, the player acquires a laser pistol from a fallen foe. The pistol has three capabilities: a standard fire mode, the ability to create force fields to block enemy fire, and a powerful charged shot that can break through force fields and some walls. Eventually, Lester also gains a plasma ball that can be used like a grenade to defeat foes (not featured in the original Amiga release). Enemies also have the same capabilities, requiring the player to take advantage of the three gun modes and the environment to overcome them.
Lester and his alien ally cannot sustain any damage, and the game ends immediately if either of them is struck by a projectile or comes in contact with an animal or an environmental hazard. However, the game uses numerous checkpoints enabling the player to keep restarting at the last point indefinitely. On the Amiga and older consoles without the ability to save a game, the player can write down an alphanumeric code for these checkpoints and re-enter it when restarting the game later. The game provides no clues as to what to do next, features no HUD (with an exception of oxygen bar during the swimming sequences) and no on-screen text, and the characters the player meets speak in unintelligible alien language.
Originally developed on an Amiga for the Amiga, Atari ST, Apple IIGS and DOS platforms, the game was widely ported to other contemporary systems. Later efforts resulted in several game engine recreations for the game that permitted it to run on modern computers, consoles and mobile phones. In 2006, Chahi independently released a 15th Anniversary Edition for Windows which allowed the game to be played on modern computers with original or enhanced visuals; following up in 2011 for its 20th anniversary, ports of the game were prepared for iOS and Android based devices.
Another World was highly innovative in its use of cinematic effects in the graphics and cutscenes. This cinematic style granted the game a praise amongst critics and a commercial success, and influenced a number of other video game designers.
Another World is a platform game, featuring a control scheme wherin the player uses either the keyboard, joystick or gamepad to make the protagonist run, jump, attack and perform other, situation specific actions such as rocking a cage back and forth. In the initial part of the game, Lester is unarmed, as he is able to kick at small creatures but is otherwise defenseless.
Later in the game, the player acquires a laser pistol from a fallen foe. The pistol has three capabilities: a standard fire mode, the ability to create force fields to block enemy fire, and a powerful charged shot that can break through force fields and some walls. Eventually, Lester also gains a plasma ball that can be used like a grenade to defeat foes (not featured in the original Amiga release). Enemies also have the same capabilities, requiring the player to take advantage of the three gun modes and the environment to overcome them.
Lester and his alien ally cannot sustain any damage, and the game ends immediately if either of them is struck by a projectile or comes in contact with an animal or an environmental hazard. However, the game uses numerous checkpoints enabling the player to keep restarting at the last point indefinitely. On the Amiga and older consoles without the ability to save a game, the player can write down an alphanumeric code for these checkpoints and re-enter it when restarting the game later. The game provides no clues as to what to do next, features no HUD (with an exception of oxygen bar during the swimming sequences) and no on-screen text, and the characters the player meets speak in unintelligible alien language.
Outer World (Jpn)
Technical
CPU
- maincpu 5A22 (@ 21 Mhz)
- soundcpu SPC700 (@ 1 Mhz)
Chipset
- SNES Custom DSP (SPC700)
Display
- Orientation Yoko
- Resolution 255 x 225
- Frequency 60.098476 Hz
Controlers
- Number of players 2
- Number of buttons 6
- Kind of controler
- joy (8 ways)
- joy (8 ways)
- joy (8 ways)
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Outer World (Jpn) Screenshots
Clones of Outer World (Jpn)
Plot
The protagonist of the game is Lester Knight Chaykin, a young genius physicist. In the opening cinematic, Lester arrives at his high-tech underground laboratory in his Ferrari 288 GTO during a thunderstorm and goes to work on his experiment using a particle accelerator, attempting to reconstruct what happened when the universe was born. Immediately before the particles reach their intended destination, a lightning bolt strikes the laboratory and interferes with the accelerator, causing the unforeseen particle fusion and an explosion opening a hole in time and space, teleporting Lester to a barren, alien planet.
After evading a number of dangerous indigenous animals, Lester is captured by a race of humanoid aliens and taken to a subterranean prison camp. Lester escapes along with a nameless alien captive ("Buddy") and the two of them must evade capture whilst travelling through a series of dangerous environments, battling alien soldiers and wild creatures while solving numerous puzzles in order to survive. The duo traverse through the prison complex, a cave system and a tower structure. In the game's climax, Lester is severely wounded, but manages to save his alien friend from death. After reaching the top of the tower, "Buddy" picks up the weakened Lester and they escape on a pterodactyl-like creature, flying off to the horizon.
After evading a number of dangerous indigenous animals, Lester is captured by a race of humanoid aliens and taken to a subterranean prison camp. Lester escapes along with a nameless alien captive ("Buddy") and the two of them must evade capture whilst travelling through a series of dangerous environments, battling alien soldiers and wild creatures while solving numerous puzzles in order to survive. The duo traverse through the prison complex, a cave system and a tower structure. In the game's climax, Lester is severely wounded, but manages to save his alien friend from death. After reaching the top of the tower, "Buddy" picks up the weakened Lester and they escape on a pterodactyl-like creature, flying off to the horizon.
Development
The game's French designer Eric Chahi had previously worked as a game programmer and then as a graphic designer for video games since 1983. It was the success of his earlier work with Paul Cuisset as a graphic designer for the adventure game Future Wars for Delphine Software and its royalties that gave him the chance to develop Another World "without any constraint of any sort or any editorial pressure." After Future Wars was released in 1989, Chahi had the choice to either work on Cuisset's next game, Operation Stealth, or create his own game. As "there had been many books and tools released to develop easily on the Amiga at that time," Chahi felt confident that he could go back to programming.
In August 1989, Chahi was impressed by the flat-color animations that the Amiga version of Dragon's Lair had and thought that it would be possible to use vector outlines to create a similar effect using much less computer storage. After first attempting to write the graphical routines in C, he turned to assembly language. He wrote a polygon routine for the Motorola 68000 on an Atari ST to test his theory, with much success. Later, he found that he could run the code on the Amiga platform and achieve a frame rate of about 20 frames per second, later recognizing this as "a major turning point in the creation of the game" and the point where he knew the polygon approach would work. He was able to take advantage of the Amiga's genlock capabilities to create rotoscoped animations with the polygons, using video recordings of himself performing various actions. Though he had tried to use smaller polygons (which Chahi called "pixigons") to construct the backgrounds for the scenes based on Deluxe Paint artwork, the process of creating them was excruciatingly slow, and he returned to using bitmapped images.
While Chahi had a clear idea of how to implement his game engine, he mostly improvised when creating the actual content of the game, allowing the game to develop "layer by layer without knowing where it was going." He planned on creating a science fiction game that was similar to Karateka and Impossible Mission. Because he wanted to create a dramatic, cinematic experience, the game features no HUD or dialog, giving the player only a representation of the surrounding game world during both gameplay elements and the cutscenes progressing the story. However, with no idea of the technical limitations he would face while building out the story, he focused more on creating ambiance, rhythmic pacing, and narrative tension to the game. Chahi resorted to developing his own tool with a new programming language through GFA Basic coupled with the game's engine in Devpac assembler, to control and animate the game, interpreted in real-time by the game engine, effectively creating his own animation sequencer.
With the creation of the tools needed for building out the rest of the game by December 1989, Chahi began working on the introductory sequence as a means to validate the full capacities of his engine. The introduction sequence also gave Chahi the chance to explore the types of cinematics he could create through the engine. Chahi later considered this the "first step in the improvisation process" that he used throughout the rest of development. He finished the game's introduction sequence in early 1990 and started working on the first level. Chahi worked at the game at a linear pace, developing each section of the game in the chronological order and influenced by his own personal feelings and attitude at the time. For example, as Chahi recognized he was trying to create a game on his own, the first portions of the game evoke loneliness and isolation, reflecting Chahi's mood at the time. He did not have the original intention of the character meeting an ally, but again described the improvisation approach led him to include the alien friend, and had included specific cinematics that showed a close up of the alien to help the player imagine this world.
Chahi said: "Another World was influenced by everything I liked at that time of my life - mainly by pictorial art, movies and science fiction books, like Dune or Hyperion. Comics and fantasy art also inspired me; artists like Michael Whelan, Richard Corben, Frank Miller and Frank Frazetta." Later in the game's development, Chahi added laser pistols, including the one that Lester carries for several effects. The idea was influenced by the Star Wars franchise, but added depth to the gameplay giving the player more options. He also found that repeated laser fire by the enemies also helped to enunciate the rhythm of the game. Chahi would later add in the plasma ball that increased the available strategy to players. Several points in the game use elevators or teleporters to move Lester between levels; Chahi had used these instead of stairways as it was difficult to produce proper animation for these.
After 17 months of development, Chahi was only about one-third completed with the game, and realized that this rate would have been impractical. He began to take steps to simplify the development, including reusing background graphics and creating building blocks that allowed him to focus more on the game's puzzles. At the same time, he began to seek a publisher for the game. He first spoke to his former employer, Delphine Software, but also sought other distributors. One, Virgin Games, were favorable to Chahi's game but had suggested that he change it to a point-and-click style adventure game. Chahi had considered changing the game by this request but realized "the effort to do this would have been too huge, and some friends who played the game loved it. Ultimately, he accepted Delphine's offer in June 1991, and set a tentative release date in November. To meet this deadline, Chahi used storyboards to sketch out the rest of the game's plot, balancing the overall pacing of the game. One ending captured on these storyboards but abandoned was Lester becoming the leader of the alien world. The game was finished in 1991, which inspired the game's tagline: "It took six days to create the Earth. Another World took two years"; Chahi noted his own exhaustion at completing this project mirrors in the near-death of Lester at the end of the game.
Upon publishing, Delphine did not perform a playtest of the full game, only having previously tested the first portion of the game. Delphine's U.S. publisher Interplay undertook a full playtest and Chahi fixed a number of bugs that arose from this. Interplay had also requested additional changes in the game, including making the game longer and changing the game's introduction music. Chahi was adamant about retaining the game's opening music, and had attempted to change Interplay's minds by sending them an "infinite fax," a looped piece of paper, with the message "keep the original intro music" on it. Only until Delphine got involved and told Interplay they legally could not change the music did Interplay relax this change.
In August 1989, Chahi was impressed by the flat-color animations that the Amiga version of Dragon's Lair had and thought that it would be possible to use vector outlines to create a similar effect using much less computer storage. After first attempting to write the graphical routines in C, he turned to assembly language. He wrote a polygon routine for the Motorola 68000 on an Atari ST to test his theory, with much success. Later, he found that he could run the code on the Amiga platform and achieve a frame rate of about 20 frames per second, later recognizing this as "a major turning point in the creation of the game" and the point where he knew the polygon approach would work. He was able to take advantage of the Amiga's genlock capabilities to create rotoscoped animations with the polygons, using video recordings of himself performing various actions. Though he had tried to use smaller polygons (which Chahi called "pixigons") to construct the backgrounds for the scenes based on Deluxe Paint artwork, the process of creating them was excruciatingly slow, and he returned to using bitmapped images.
While Chahi had a clear idea of how to implement his game engine, he mostly improvised when creating the actual content of the game, allowing the game to develop "layer by layer without knowing where it was going." He planned on creating a science fiction game that was similar to Karateka and Impossible Mission. Because he wanted to create a dramatic, cinematic experience, the game features no HUD or dialog, giving the player only a representation of the surrounding game world during both gameplay elements and the cutscenes progressing the story. However, with no idea of the technical limitations he would face while building out the story, he focused more on creating ambiance, rhythmic pacing, and narrative tension to the game. Chahi resorted to developing his own tool with a new programming language through GFA Basic coupled with the game's engine in Devpac assembler, to control and animate the game, interpreted in real-time by the game engine, effectively creating his own animation sequencer.
With the creation of the tools needed for building out the rest of the game by December 1989, Chahi began working on the introductory sequence as a means to validate the full capacities of his engine. The introduction sequence also gave Chahi the chance to explore the types of cinematics he could create through the engine. Chahi later considered this the "first step in the improvisation process" that he used throughout the rest of development. He finished the game's introduction sequence in early 1990 and started working on the first level. Chahi worked at the game at a linear pace, developing each section of the game in the chronological order and influenced by his own personal feelings and attitude at the time. For example, as Chahi recognized he was trying to create a game on his own, the first portions of the game evoke loneliness and isolation, reflecting Chahi's mood at the time. He did not have the original intention of the character meeting an ally, but again described the improvisation approach led him to include the alien friend, and had included specific cinematics that showed a close up of the alien to help the player imagine this world.
Chahi said: "Another World was influenced by everything I liked at that time of my life - mainly by pictorial art, movies and science fiction books, like Dune or Hyperion. Comics and fantasy art also inspired me; artists like Michael Whelan, Richard Corben, Frank Miller and Frank Frazetta." Later in the game's development, Chahi added laser pistols, including the one that Lester carries for several effects. The idea was influenced by the Star Wars franchise, but added depth to the gameplay giving the player more options. He also found that repeated laser fire by the enemies also helped to enunciate the rhythm of the game. Chahi would later add in the plasma ball that increased the available strategy to players. Several points in the game use elevators or teleporters to move Lester between levels; Chahi had used these instead of stairways as it was difficult to produce proper animation for these.
After 17 months of development, Chahi was only about one-third completed with the game, and realized that this rate would have been impractical. He began to take steps to simplify the development, including reusing background graphics and creating building blocks that allowed him to focus more on the game's puzzles. At the same time, he began to seek a publisher for the game. He first spoke to his former employer, Delphine Software, but also sought other distributors. One, Virgin Games, were favorable to Chahi's game but had suggested that he change it to a point-and-click style adventure game. Chahi had considered changing the game by this request but realized "the effort to do this would have been too huge, and some friends who played the game loved it. Ultimately, he accepted Delphine's offer in June 1991, and set a tentative release date in November. To meet this deadline, Chahi used storyboards to sketch out the rest of the game's plot, balancing the overall pacing of the game. One ending captured on these storyboards but abandoned was Lester becoming the leader of the alien world. The game was finished in 1991, which inspired the game's tagline: "It took six days to create the Earth. Another World took two years"; Chahi noted his own exhaustion at completing this project mirrors in the near-death of Lester at the end of the game.
Upon publishing, Delphine did not perform a playtest of the full game, only having previously tested the first portion of the game. Delphine's U.S. publisher Interplay undertook a full playtest and Chahi fixed a number of bugs that arose from this. Interplay had also requested additional changes in the game, including making the game longer and changing the game's introduction music. Chahi was adamant about retaining the game's opening music, and had attempted to change Interplay's minds by sending them an "infinite fax," a looped piece of paper, with the message "keep the original intro music" on it. Only until Delphine got involved and told Interplay they legally could not change the music did Interplay relax this change.
Release
The game was originally released for the Amiga and Atari ST in 1991, running at a display resolution of 320×200 pixels. These versions received less play-testing than other versions, making for a less-fluid game, but the Amiga's sound capabilities afford it a high sound quality compared to contemporary ports. The game released on the Atari ST is identical but with a less refined sound and its colors are less sharp than on Amiga. These versions had code wheel protection that made it difficult to use unauthorized copies, forcing the player to enter a code (series of figures) looked up from a code wheel that came with the game. The player had to turn the wheel according to the number that was requested in the screen whenever the game is loaded in order to reload the game. Another small change between the Amiga and ST versions and the others was that Lester would yell as he grabs the vine in the first area if he was not being chased by the beast in these versions; this feature was omitted from most other versions.
The game was released in North America under the title Out of This World in order to avoid confusion with the popular but unrelated soap opera Another World. Coincidentally, the science fiction sitcom Out of This World aired at the same time of the game's USA-Canada release.
Reviews praised the game's graphics, sound, and gameplay, but criticized its short span. Chahi, working for 16 hours a day for two months, responded with creating a new level just before the amphitheatre scene, when the alien friend rescues Lester at the end of a long dead-end corridor. Chahi said: "I like this extra level a lot because it reinforces the close relationship between the hero and the alien by developing their mutual aid." Also added were more dangers and more save point. This ended up being the 1992 DOS version, which was coded by Daniel Morais, and had the exact code wheel protection of the Amiga and ST versions. The Macintosh features higher resolution than the DOS version, but is otherwise identical.
Through Interplay Entertainment, the game was ported to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), the Sega Genesis (Mega Drive), and the Apple IIGS in 1992. The SNES, Sega Mega-CD (Sega CD), 3DO and Apple IIGS ports each contain a prologue before the introduction begins, which consists of an entry that comes from Lester's diary. The Mega Drive port's prologue is different from that of the SNES and 3DO ports. The Mega-CD version of Another World combines the original game (with CD quality new music by Freitas) with the sequel, Heart of the Alien, and was released in North America as Heart of the Alien: Out of this World Parts I and II.
The Super Nintendo and Apple IIGS ports were also programmed by "Burger" Bill Heineman and were unique in that they both used changing background musical scores throughout the game, adding a very cinematic feel to specific scenes. This differed from other ports which only had music for the opening and ending. Interplay wanted to add additional tunes by Charles Deenen. They also wanted to exchange Jean-François Freitas's music for a different soundtrack, but Chahi did not agree to the change and Delphine's lawyer helped to keep the original intro music. The SNES version was programmed by Rebecca Heineman, who said: "Since Interplay wouldn't pay for a Super FX chip, I found a way to do it with static RAM on the cart and DMA which got me a great frame rate. Interplay wouldn't pay for the static RAM either, so I ended up using Fast ROM instruction. Interplay wouldn't pay for a 3.6 Mhz ROM either. So, frustrated, I shoved my block move code into the DMA registers and use it as RAM running at 3.6 Mhz. It worked. I got fast block moves on slow cartridges and made a game using polygons working on a 65816 with pure software rendering."Another World was the only game directly ported from the Super Nintendo over to the Apple IIGS, which shared the same 65C816 microprocessor.
The 3DO port was developed by Interplay in 1993, and features very detailed bitmap graphics based backgrounds. However, Chahi believes that this actually detracts from the game because the polygons do not fit in with this, and thus make the backgrounds look flat. The game's soundtrack was changed again, albeit without any legal troubles, due to Chahi's focus on Heart of Darkness. Some new tunes were also added, all played from the disc, such as when Lester escapes the big pool in the first level and when he is grabbed by the guard that appears at the end. At the ending there is a fragment of intro of the sequel, Heart of the Alien. Also included in some versions of this 3DO release is a separate minigame "Stalactites", in which the player pushes up stalactites shapes falling from the top of the screen. Another hidden feature of this version is the animation of Bill Heineman getting his head chopped off.
Chahi acquired the rights to Another World's intellectual property from Delphine Software International after they closed down in July 2004. Magic Productions then offered to port the game to mobile phones, and it was ported with help from Cyril Cogordan. Chahi saw that the game's playability could be improved, so he used his old Amiga for reprogramming certain parts of the script and made the graphics' shading clearer in order to counter mobile phones' low resolutions. In July 2005, almost a decade and a half after it was first released on the Amiga, the game was released for mobile phone handsets using the Symbian operating system, thanks to Telcogames and developer Magic Productions. In 2006, Magic Productions also released a remastered Pocket PC version for Windows Mobile 5 OS or higher in QVGA (320×240 resolution). Telcogames entered administration in 2008, closing the Magic Productions studio. The administrator's letter to stakeholders mentions that its assets will be sold, but does not indicate to whom or mention Another World assets by name.
In 2012 an Atari Jaguar port of Another World (Out Of This World) was confirmed and approved by Chahi. It was released as a limited collector's item in cartridge form complete with a box and manual published by the association Retro-gaming Connexion (RGC) in 2013. It is available for preorder only from Retro Collect. The game engine was rewritten especially for the Atari Jaguar to make use of the several processors of the console to render polygons (GPU, Blitter), decompress data on-the-fly (GPU), play stereo music and sound effects (DSP), and JIT-compile and execute the scripts of the game (68k). The Jaguar version is playable in the original graphics 16 color mode and deluxe 15th anniversary graphics 256 color mode. It is playable in normal and speed-run modes and in 5 languages: english, german, french, italian and spanish.
After the release of the Pocket PC version, in 2006 Chahi created a new Windows version targeted at Windows XP. Emmanuel Rivoire increased the resolution to 1280×800 pixels and Chahi created more detailed backgrounds. He found that his original choice to use polygons for the game characters enabled him to use the original character art at a higher resolution. The game still supports the original 320×200 resolution, as well as the original background art (as an option), and it features twice as many checkpoints as the original, which makes it somewhat easier, as well as newly remixed sounds.
The game does not include Interplay's extra music, but it includes the extra level, as well as the added enemies and hazards from the console versions. This version is part of the Another World 15th Anniversary Edition CD-ROM released in 2007, which also includes a development diary, an exclusive postcard autographed by Eric Chahi and a separate soundtrack CD. The CD-ROM version of 15th Anniversary Edition contains harsh digital rights management technology – upon installation, the game verifies the user's serial number through the Internet, allowing only for five installations of the game using any given serial number. Uninstallation does not reset the count, so after five installations, the player must purchase a new copy. This problem does not exist on the digital copy sold by GOG.com.
At the 2011 Game Developers Conference, Chahi announced that an iOS port of the title will be created by DotEmu and distributed by BulkyPix. On September 22, 2011, Bulkypix released a special 20th anniversary edition for the iPhone and iPad, featuring a switch between the original and HD graphics, a new intuitive touch controls or classic D-pad, three difficulty modes, and remastered sound effects. The Android version has been released in March 2012.
The game was unofficially ported to multiple computer and console systems. Some of these ports were later officially authorized by Eric Chahi:
The game was released in North America under the title Out of This World in order to avoid confusion with the popular but unrelated soap opera Another World. Coincidentally, the science fiction sitcom Out of This World aired at the same time of the game's USA-Canada release.
Ports
Reviews praised the game's graphics, sound, and gameplay, but criticized its short span. Chahi, working for 16 hours a day for two months, responded with creating a new level just before the amphitheatre scene, when the alien friend rescues Lester at the end of a long dead-end corridor. Chahi said: "I like this extra level a lot because it reinforces the close relationship between the hero and the alien by developing their mutual aid." Also added were more dangers and more save point. This ended up being the 1992 DOS version, which was coded by Daniel Morais, and had the exact code wheel protection of the Amiga and ST versions. The Macintosh features higher resolution than the DOS version, but is otherwise identical.
Through Interplay Entertainment, the game was ported to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), the Sega Genesis (Mega Drive), and the Apple IIGS in 1992. The SNES, Sega Mega-CD (Sega CD), 3DO and Apple IIGS ports each contain a prologue before the introduction begins, which consists of an entry that comes from Lester's diary. The Mega Drive port's prologue is different from that of the SNES and 3DO ports. The Mega-CD version of Another World combines the original game (with CD quality new music by Freitas) with the sequel, Heart of the Alien, and was released in North America as Heart of the Alien: Out of this World Parts I and II.
The Super Nintendo and Apple IIGS ports were also programmed by "Burger" Bill Heineman and were unique in that they both used changing background musical scores throughout the game, adding a very cinematic feel to specific scenes. This differed from other ports which only had music for the opening and ending. Interplay wanted to add additional tunes by Charles Deenen. They also wanted to exchange Jean-François Freitas's music for a different soundtrack, but Chahi did not agree to the change and Delphine's lawyer helped to keep the original intro music. The SNES version was programmed by Rebecca Heineman, who said: "Since Interplay wouldn't pay for a Super FX chip, I found a way to do it with static RAM on the cart and DMA which got me a great frame rate. Interplay wouldn't pay for the static RAM either, so I ended up using Fast ROM instruction. Interplay wouldn't pay for a 3.6 Mhz ROM either. So, frustrated, I shoved my block move code into the DMA registers and use it as RAM running at 3.6 Mhz. It worked. I got fast block moves on slow cartridges and made a game using polygons working on a 65816 with pure software rendering."Another World was the only game directly ported from the Super Nintendo over to the Apple IIGS, which shared the same 65C816 microprocessor.
The 3DO port was developed by Interplay in 1993, and features very detailed bitmap graphics based backgrounds. However, Chahi believes that this actually detracts from the game because the polygons do not fit in with this, and thus make the backgrounds look flat. The game's soundtrack was changed again, albeit without any legal troubles, due to Chahi's focus on Heart of Darkness. Some new tunes were also added, all played from the disc, such as when Lester escapes the big pool in the first level and when he is grabbed by the guard that appears at the end. At the ending there is a fragment of intro of the sequel, Heart of the Alien. Also included in some versions of this 3DO release is a separate minigame "Stalactites", in which the player pushes up stalactites shapes falling from the top of the screen. Another hidden feature of this version is the animation of Bill Heineman getting his head chopped off.
Chahi acquired the rights to Another World's intellectual property from Delphine Software International after they closed down in July 2004. Magic Productions then offered to port the game to mobile phones, and it was ported with help from Cyril Cogordan. Chahi saw that the game's playability could be improved, so he used his old Amiga for reprogramming certain parts of the script and made the graphics' shading clearer in order to counter mobile phones' low resolutions. In July 2005, almost a decade and a half after it was first released on the Amiga, the game was released for mobile phone handsets using the Symbian operating system, thanks to Telcogames and developer Magic Productions. In 2006, Magic Productions also released a remastered Pocket PC version for Windows Mobile 5 OS or higher in QVGA (320×240 resolution). Telcogames entered administration in 2008, closing the Magic Productions studio. The administrator's letter to stakeholders mentions that its assets will be sold, but does not indicate to whom or mention Another World assets by name.
In 2012 an Atari Jaguar port of Another World (Out Of This World) was confirmed and approved by Chahi. It was released as a limited collector's item in cartridge form complete with a box and manual published by the association Retro-gaming Connexion (RGC) in 2013. It is available for preorder only from Retro Collect. The game engine was rewritten especially for the Atari Jaguar to make use of the several processors of the console to render polygons (GPU, Blitter), decompress data on-the-fly (GPU), play stereo music and sound effects (DSP), and JIT-compile and execute the scripts of the game (68k). The Jaguar version is playable in the original graphics 16 color mode and deluxe 15th anniversary graphics 256 color mode. It is playable in normal and speed-run modes and in 5 languages: english, german, french, italian and spanish.
15th Anniversary
After the release of the Pocket PC version, in 2006 Chahi created a new Windows version targeted at Windows XP. Emmanuel Rivoire increased the resolution to 1280×800 pixels and Chahi created more detailed backgrounds. He found that his original choice to use polygons for the game characters enabled him to use the original character art at a higher resolution. The game still supports the original 320×200 resolution, as well as the original background art (as an option), and it features twice as many checkpoints as the original, which makes it somewhat easier, as well as newly remixed sounds.
The game does not include Interplay's extra music, but it includes the extra level, as well as the added enemies and hazards from the console versions. This version is part of the Another World 15th Anniversary Edition CD-ROM released in 2007, which also includes a development diary, an exclusive postcard autographed by Eric Chahi and a separate soundtrack CD. The CD-ROM version of 15th Anniversary Edition contains harsh digital rights management technology – upon installation, the game verifies the user's serial number through the Internet, allowing only for five installations of the game using any given serial number. Uninstallation does not reset the count, so after five installations, the player must purchase a new copy. This problem does not exist on the digital copy sold by GOG.com.
20th Anniversary
At the 2011 Game Developers Conference, Chahi announced that an iOS port of the title will be created by DotEmu and distributed by BulkyPix. On September 22, 2011, Bulkypix released a special 20th anniversary edition for the iPhone and iPad, featuring a switch between the original and HD graphics, a new intuitive touch controls or classic D-pad, three difficulty modes, and remastered sound effects. The Android version has been released in March 2012.
Fan ports
The game was unofficially ported to multiple computer and console systems. Some of these ports were later officially authorized by Eric Chahi:
- In 2004, Cyril Cogordan "Foxy" released an unofficial Game Boy Advance (GBA) port by reverse engineering the Atari ST version. This version's C code eventually led to a Symbian mobile port. Originally Chahi was against the port, but in 2005 he decided to authorize its distribution. The game was released as freeware for play on the Game Boy Advance on April 28, 2005, via a game engine recreation by FoxySofts. Around the same time, another unofficial GBA source port was made by Gil Megidish. This port was based on the 3DO version, and required the original 3DO CD to run so that only those who already owned the game would be able to play it.
- Another World has also been also ported for the GP32 on May 31, 2005, and the Dreamcast on December 31, 2005, via a game engine recreation by Grégory Montoir (cyx) called raw. An unofficial GP32 port was also made by Philippe Simons using reverse engineering by Grégory Montoir. The port won a prize during the GBAX 2005 competition.
- In 2011 Fabien Sanglard analysed Another World by reverse engineering and reconstructed a complete C++ source code variant of the internal "virtual machine".
Reception
Another World was met with a widespread critical acclaim. Among many other accolades, it was named as number one top new Amiga game of 1992 by Amiga World and given the award for the Most Innovative New Game of the year by Electronic Gaming Monthly. The game sold around 1 million copies during the 1990s.
Retrospectively, in 2007, Kristan Reed of Eurogamer called Another World "one of the most visionary and memorable games of its time." Reviewing the 15th Anniversary Edition in 2010, Eurogamer's John Walker called it "still utterly beautiful", adding that the game's art style is "just fantastic. Chahi's design is exquisitely simple and enormously evocative. Built from spare polygons, its paper-craft-like animation conjures the world, the creatures and the threat wonderfully." In 2011, Wirtualna Polska ranked the "visionary" Another World as the 15th best game for the Amiga, remembering it for a cinematic feel and "uncommonly" high difficulty (for a first-time player) and calling it "one of the most important titles in the history of electronic entertainment." In 2012, 1UP.com ranked this "short-but-sweet cinematic action game" as the 99th most essential video game of all time, commenting: "Especially in an age of entertainment where fans cry out for pages upon pages lore and glossaries for the tiniest minutiae of their fiction, Out of this World's dimension contains a sense of mystery that makes it all the more lonely, and often, quietly beautiful. The game can be brutal and heartbreaking, but Chahi's amazing vision makes [it] a thoroughly gripping experience." Also in 2012, Lucas Sullivan of GamesRadar ranked it as number one top "cult-classic franchise" that should be rebooted in a way Prince of Persia was, commenting that "despite a small cast of characters, minimalist gameplay, and some truly grueling difficulty, Another World... resonated with gamers in ways they weren't expecting. The game's vivid vector graphics were utterly stunning at the time, and the pacing of the heavy, nicely animated platforming naturally melded with taking in the sights of the sublime alien landscape," adding that "slowly adapting to the hostile surroundings offered a hard-earned satisfaction and a surprisingly moving story."
In addition, the beast creature from the first level was ranked sixth on the GameSpot's 1999 list of the best monsters in gaming, while the alien "Buddy" was ranked third on the list of the ten best sidekicks in 2000, along with a comment that the "groundbreaking" Another World "is one of those rare games that everybody seemed to love." In 2012, IGN ranked the game's laser gun as the 86th best video game weapon. That same year, Another World became one of the first 14 titles added to the video game art exposition at the Museum of Modern Art.
Retrospectively, in 2007, Kristan Reed of Eurogamer called Another World "one of the most visionary and memorable games of its time." Reviewing the 15th Anniversary Edition in 2010, Eurogamer's John Walker called it "still utterly beautiful", adding that the game's art style is "just fantastic. Chahi's design is exquisitely simple and enormously evocative. Built from spare polygons, its paper-craft-like animation conjures the world, the creatures and the threat wonderfully." In 2011, Wirtualna Polska ranked the "visionary" Another World as the 15th best game for the Amiga, remembering it for a cinematic feel and "uncommonly" high difficulty (for a first-time player) and calling it "one of the most important titles in the history of electronic entertainment." In 2012, 1UP.com ranked this "short-but-sweet cinematic action game" as the 99th most essential video game of all time, commenting: "Especially in an age of entertainment where fans cry out for pages upon pages lore and glossaries for the tiniest minutiae of their fiction, Out of this World's dimension contains a sense of mystery that makes it all the more lonely, and often, quietly beautiful. The game can be brutal and heartbreaking, but Chahi's amazing vision makes [it] a thoroughly gripping experience." Also in 2012, Lucas Sullivan of GamesRadar ranked it as number one top "cult-classic franchise" that should be rebooted in a way Prince of Persia was, commenting that "despite a small cast of characters, minimalist gameplay, and some truly grueling difficulty, Another World... resonated with gamers in ways they weren't expecting. The game's vivid vector graphics were utterly stunning at the time, and the pacing of the heavy, nicely animated platforming naturally melded with taking in the sights of the sublime alien landscape," adding that "slowly adapting to the hostile surroundings offered a hard-earned satisfaction and a surprisingly moving story."
In addition, the beast creature from the first level was ranked sixth on the GameSpot's 1999 list of the best monsters in gaming, while the alien "Buddy" was ranked third on the list of the ten best sidekicks in 2000, along with a comment that the "groundbreaking" Another World "is one of those rare games that everybody seemed to love." In 2012, IGN ranked the game's laser gun as the 86th best video game weapon. That same year, Another World became one of the first 14 titles added to the video game art exposition at the Museum of Modern Art.
Legacy
A sequel titled Heart of the Alien was developed by Interplay released exclusively for the Sega Mega-CD in 1994. The game is similar in graphics and gameplay, as the player plays as Lester's alien friend ("Buddy"). Chahi had nothing to do with the development of the sequel, beyond suggesting "redesigning the game from the alien point of view," by which he meant making an alternative version of the original game but was misunderstood.
The French company which produced Another World, Delphine Software, has since gone into administrative receivership and Another World remains their most recognized game. Paul Cuisset's 1992 game Flashback, also released by Delphine but created without an involvement of Chahi, features similar gameplay and graphics and makes a few nods to Another World, including the use of personal force fields in combat, a nearly identical end text in the ending cutscene, and an almost exact motion recreation of the gun pickup cutscene. A very similar plot premise was used in 1999's Outcast by Infogrames. The game had also a big influence on several game other designers. Fumito Ueda cited it as an inspiration for his creation of Ico.Hideo Kojima, creator of the Metal Gear Solid series, said that is was one of the five games that influenced him the most. Video game designer Goichi Suda called it his favourite game.
Eric Chahi returned to the concept of cinematic platform games after leaving Delphine. In 1998, he and his company Amazing Studio made Heart of Darkness, which is in many ways a spiritual successor to Another World. After that, Chahi disappeared from the game industry for several years, but in 2005 he regained interest in making video games. In 2011, Ubisoft released his next game, From Dust.
The French company which produced Another World, Delphine Software, has since gone into administrative receivership and Another World remains their most recognized game. Paul Cuisset's 1992 game Flashback, also released by Delphine but created without an involvement of Chahi, features similar gameplay and graphics and makes a few nods to Another World, including the use of personal force fields in combat, a nearly identical end text in the ending cutscene, and an almost exact motion recreation of the gun pickup cutscene. A very similar plot premise was used in 1999's Outcast by Infogrames. The game had also a big influence on several game other designers. Fumito Ueda cited it as an inspiration for his creation of Ico.Hideo Kojima, creator of the Metal Gear Solid series, said that is was one of the five games that influenced him the most. Video game designer Goichi Suda called it his favourite game.
Eric Chahi returned to the concept of cinematic platform games after leaving Delphine. In 1998, he and his company Amazing Studio made Heart of Darkness, which is in many ways a spiritual successor to Another World. After that, Chahi disappeared from the game industry for several years, but in 2005 he regained interest in making video games. In 2011, Ubisoft released his next game, From Dust.
