Macintosh

The Forgotten: It Begins

Advertising Blurbs

It was a time of adventure, a time of romance and a time of magic.

It is New Orleans, circa 1930. The sudden and unexplained disappearance of Richard Haliburton, the famous archaeologist and explorer, has brought you to the notorious French Quarter during the heyday of New Orleans voodoo.

Your search for the clues to Haliburton's disappearance will lead you into the heart of something much more sinister than you expected.

Discover the ties between your world and a series of unspeakably powerful artifacts that were crafted by an unknown race and locked in time...

...until now.




Contributed by Jeanne (59132) on Jul 18, 2005.

History & Explanation

You begin by embarking to New Orleans on a search for the vanished explorer, Richard Halliburton . . . and yourself. But you discover a much greater mystery while searching for both Richard and your own identity . . . and, somehow, the cards are the key to it all.

The Forgotten is not just a single game. It has been conceived, and the plot line developed, as a series of games that will progress over time, each module developing the story line and taking advantage and the latest technology available to us during the development process. Even as you read this, development on the 2nd and 3rd installments in the series is underway.

This first installment, It Begins, is meant to introduce the player to the series--the plot line, the recurrent locales and themes, the interface and the basic nature of the gameplay which, while being enhanced and improved with every new module, will stay fundamentally consistent throughout the series to allow the player to experience the entirety of the World of the Forgotten as a seamless whole. There are objects and cards collected here that will be used in later games. There are even puzzles that will not be fully solvable until future modules as the player progresses through the story and grows the power and scope of their own Collection. And while there are puzzles to solve, challenges to meet, and increasingly more interesting and richly detailed areas to explore, the greatest mystery to solve is and will remain the discovery of the story. What , exactly, is happening here? Who is Richard, really, and what is his motivation? Who is Thibedeaux, and what does he want? Who are you, for that matter? Why does the Hotel, even in its prime, seem empty and lifeless? Who built it, and why? And who created the Cards, and what is their power?

The first installment easily raises as many questions as it answers. The second installment in the series, The Collection, will answer many questions, especially about the cards, their creators, and the hierarchy of power. Yet, there will still be much left unanswered . . . for now. What is the role of the hotel? Is Richard Halliburton really your friend? Why does it all start in New Orleans . . . and what about the Anasazi?

The Forgotten, as currently planned, will comprise seven total modules, tentatively titled:
1. It Begins
2. The Collection
3. Anasazi
4. The Hotel
5. Thibedeaux's Curse
6. The Collectors
7. End Game


The first and second modules will likely be single CDs, while the 3rd, 4th, and later modules will be targetted for DVD. With each version, the technology used and the format taken while change and improve, while keeping the overall gameplay consistent over the entire story.

In addition, ancillary projects that flesh out the storyóand explain, slowly, the bits and pieces of the mystery of The Forgottenówill be developed, and are being developed now, as time and public interest warrant.

Thanks:

Special Thanks to Jared Kaplan at Alien Logic (http://www.axlogic.com) for his excellent AX Movie and AX Image extensions to mTropolis, which have been critical to the development of this game.

Thanks to everybody else at Ransom Interactive and outside Ransom Interactive that has helped to make this long-under-development (and continually developed) project come to fruition.

Special thanks goes to Mike Dixon at the Macintosh Gamers Ledge for his support; thanks Mike! Big thanks to our beta testers (in particular, Eric and Joel Francois, Daniel Quaroni, John Newman, and Tim Regan).

Much thanks to Heidi Rosenberg and all the other people at Strata Incorporated (now C3D) for their help and their fine product (and thanks to everyone on the Strata list for help and information).

Much thanks to Dirk Bester, John Dunning, Keith R. Crosley, Robert Blair, and all the other fine people formerly of mFactory/Quark (and the people on the mTropo-list) for their help and support for their excellent product, mTropolis. Kudos to Brian Wilson at Three Islands Press for his shareware typeface, TreeFrog. Also, a big thank you very much to Alex Thompson for all her help and support.


Contributed by Jeanne (59132) on Jan 29, 2005.

November 12, 1999 -- DreamCatcher Interactive now shipping The Forgotten.

The Forgotten, it begins... is the first installment of a series of episodic adventure games. Magic and legend is the theme in this atmospheric mystery, beginning in New Orleans and ending in a discovery older than recorded time…

In the first episode the player is given the task to solve the disappearance of Richard Haliburton, the true role model for the Indiana Jones series. While gathering clues and solving puzzles, the player discovers that the supernatural is the cause of that and other famous peoples’ disappearances as well. A progressive story involving voodoo and Russian legend unfolds as the player explores the highly interactive environments. You (the player) must get to the bottom of this mystery, before it gets you too…

Features

• A gripping graphical mystery adventure that captures the imagination
• Fully engaging 360° viewing technology
• Beautifully rendered 3D scenes and animation
• Haunting original soundtrack


Contributed by Jeanne (59132) on Mar 20, 2004.