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![Titanic Titanic](http://www.wired.com/geekmom/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/titanic2-300x168.jpg)
It seemed like a normal day. Sit back at your computer, put in a new CD-ROM and relax. Unfortunately the galaxy had other plans. Without warning, a loud crash introduces you to the Starship Titanic: The Ship That Cannot Possibly Go Wrong. As the galaxy's most most prestigious, most impressive, largest and therefore most expensive interstellar liner, the Starship Titanic should be the flying treasure of the universe. Unfortunately something has, quite obviously gone wrong, or at least gone unexpectedly.
The sinking of the Titanic Image via Wikipedia. April 15 is the anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic on its maiden voyage in 1912. The wreck of the ship was found in two pieces, the bow and the stern, by Ballard in 1985, who released the precise coordinates of the wreck: 41.726931° N and -49.948253° W. Now, switch back to the house and pick another star. Back to the star map, find the second star (you only have two degrees of freedom, so controls get weird here), and press 'L' to lock the second coordinate once you've lined them up (a line will appear between the locked star and the red cross).
The ship's main computer, Titania, has been sabotaged and gone insane. As a result, all the artificial personalities that manage the ship are also affected. You'll need to deal with a DeskBot, a BellBot, a BarBot not to mention a sarcastic parrot, a proud elevator and a stupid bomb. Without time or consideration to any other options, you find yourself quickly shanghaied aboard the Titanic, given an cheap, economy-sized room and put in charge of fixing the puzzling situation aboard the ship. Starship Titanic is a 1st-person adventure game, described by some as a fusion of Myst if it had been conceived by Douglas Adams (author of Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy and creative force behind this game). With a basic set of navigational controls, the player must explore the starship's many rooms, obtaining and manipulating objects and conversing with many different characters in an effort to get better lodgings and set things right along the way. Conversation with these characters is done trough a parser system that recognizes key words that the player must input.
At times, you are able to adjust dials which control various attributes of a robot character's personality and general usefulness.
While James Cameron's Titanic conquers the box office, Douglas Adams' Starship Titanic sets its sights on the less-charted waters of computer games. The cosmically comic science-fiction game, which will be launched at a New York City party on Monday, is an ambitious voyage for both the author and the computer-game industry.Adams, who achieved international fame for his whimsical series of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy novels, has created computer games before. In the mid-'80s, he wrote a text-only adventure based on Hitchhiker's Guide. Adams decided to return to the medium again after being inspired and somewhat bored by Myst. ('Once you got inside, it seemed like nothing very much happened.' )Adams spent the last two years writing and developing Starship Titanic with his company, The Digital Village. His goal with Starship Titanic: to make a sophisticated environment filled with dynamic creatures and lifelike conversation.'
In a lot of games,' Adams says, 'a tiny box comes up next to a character and gives you five choices of things to say – like that happens in real life!' 'With Tom Clancy, every book that comes out sells millions of copies.
His game didn't,' noted Ken Gordon, producer for the publishing company. 'Having a recognizable brand name attached helps make people notice, but that's not enough. A game has to be a good game.' The book-brand name game is especially relied upon by girlware developers, who are competing to win the trust of wallet-wielding parents. Established books provide a safe way for these companies to attract buyers. Her Interactive makes games based upon popular books like the Vampire Diaries and, coming soon, Nancy Drew.
Creative Wonders hit with its CD-ROM versions of Madeleine.' Brands already have a place in the heart of the consumer, so are more likely to capture attention in the stores,' says Creative Wonders' Holly Smevog. 'Assuming you make a good game, your potential market is open to everyone who already likes your brands.' Still, according to industry analyst Mark Hardie of Forrester Research, book-inspired games have yet to spawn what he calls 'a runaway hit.' The brand-name association generally accounts for an 'early big rush,' he says, but the interest eventually wanes.For Adams, that big rush is liable to come from his Hitchhiker fans, whose rabid appetites have accounted for the author's more than 15 million books in print.Though he plans to take a break from CD-ROMs, Adams says he's interested in developing another Internet or console game (possibly in conjunction with the impending Hitchhiker film).'
I never set out to be a novelist,' he admits. 'I just had the most success at it.
I'm really keen on doing a wide range of things. It's like mental crop rotation.'
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