Down in the Dumps | |
---|---|
Developer(s) | Haiku Studios |
Publisher(s) | Philips Media |
Director(s) | |
Platform(s) | MS-DOS, Windows, Macintosh |
Release | |
Genre(s) | Adventure |
Mode(s) | Single-player |
Down in the Dumps is a 1996 adventure game developed for MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows, by the French Haiku Studios and published by Philips Media. The release for Macintosh was published in 1997. Versions for the PlayStation, Sega Saturn and Philips CD-i [1] were slated for 1996, [2] but never released.
The game's storyline is about the Blubs, an extraterrestrial family (father and mother Blub, their son and daughter, the grandparents and their pet Stinkie), who crash with their spaceship on a landfill on Earth after being pursued by the villainous Khan and his criminal associates. After surviving the crash, the Blub family goes on to live on the landfill, while trying to repair their damaged spaceship in order to return home. The player is set out on a mission by grandfather Blub, an inventor and the spaceship's technician, to find the missing parts needed to reconstruct the spaceship. Meanwhile, Khan, whose ship also crashed on the landfill after the pursuit of the Blub family, sends out his minions to frustrate the efforts of the Blubs.
The game consists of five parts called "toons", all set in the landfill – except for part five which takes place in space – featuring one or two of the Blub family members as playable characters. The five sections are titled "The Blub, the Rat and the Bad Guy", "The Hypnotic Machine", "The Abominable Robin Blub", "The Bum" and "The End". Each has its own distinct visual theme, although the overall visual style is very cartoon-like. For example, the player visits the head of a homeless person ("bum") and a society inhabited by frogs, where a series of events somewhat reminiscent of the Robin Hood story is triggered.
The player has to solve different puzzles in order to advance the plot by using a point and click interface. Large portions of the plot are told by pre-rendered cinematics, often triggered at the beginning or the end of a "toon".
The Dig is a 1995 point-and-click adventure game developed by LucasArts for PC and Macintosh. Like other LucasArts adventure games, it uses the SCUMM video game engine, as well as the last SCUMM game on MS-DOS. It features a full voice-acting cast, including voice actors Robert Patrick and Steve Blum, and a digital orchestral score. The game uses a combination of drawn two-dimensional artwork and limited, pre-rendered three-dimensional clips, with the latter created by Industrial Light & Magic.
Batman: The Animated Series is an American animated superhero television series based on the DC Comics superhero Batman. Developed by Bruce Timm and Eric Radomski, and produced by Warner Bros. Animation, it originally aired on Fox Kids from September 5, 1992, to September 15, 1995, with a total of 85 episodes. Mid-way through the series' run, it was re-titled The Adventures of Batman & Robin.
Chaos Control is a rail shooter developed by Infogrames Multimedia and published by Philips Interactive Media for the CD-i, MS-DOS, Macintosh, Sega Saturn and PlayStation in 1995. The game's cutscenes are rendered in a style reminiscent of anime.
Crash Team Racing is a 1999 kart racing video game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation. It is the fourth installment in the Crash Bandicoot series. The game's story focuses on the efforts of Crash Bandicoot, Doctor Neo Cortex, and other ragtag team of characters in the Crash Bandicoot series, who must race against the egomaniacal Nitros Oxide to save the Earth from destruction. In the game, players can take control of one of fifteen Crash Bandicoot series characters, though only eight are available at first. During the races, offensive and speed boosting power-ups can be used to gain an advantage.
Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure is a 2002 platform game developed by Vicarious Visions and published by Universal Interactive for the Game Boy Advance. It is the seventh installment in the Crash Bandicoot video game series, the first Crash Bandicoot game not to be released on a PlayStation console, and the first Crash Bandicoot game to be released on a handheld console. The game's story centers on a plot to shrink the Earth by the main antagonist, Doctor Neo Cortex, through the use of a gigantic weapon named the "Planetary Minimizer". The protagonist of the story, Crash Bandicoot, must gather Crystals in order to power a device that will return the Earth to its proper size, defeating Doctor Cortex and his minions along the way.
Zelda's Adventure is an action-adventure fantasy video game developed by Viridis Corporation and released on the CD-i format, based on The Legend of Zelda franchise. Set in the land of Tolemac, the game follows a non-traditional storyline, in which Link has been captured by the evil lord Ganon, and Zelda must collect the seven celestial signs in order to rescue him.
The Daedalus Encounter is a 1995 interactive movie puzzle adventure game developed by Mechadeus and published by Virgin Interactive for Windows. The game was ported to the 3DO by Lifelike Productions and published by Panasonic. The premise of the game is that there are three space marines who have fought as part of an interstellar war. One of them, Casey, has been brought back to life by his partners after a space accident and he is now a brain grafted in a life-support system. In order to save themselves, the three characters and the player solve all sorts of puzzles.
It Came from Outer Space is a 1953 American science fiction horror film, the first in the 3D process from Universal-International. It was produced by William Alland and directed by Jack Arnold. The film stars Richard Carlson and Barbara Rush, and features Charles Drake, Joe Sawyer, and Russell Johnson. The script is based on Ray Bradbury's original film treatment "The Meteor" and not, as sometimes claimed, a published short story.
Cyberia is a science fiction action adventure video game released for MS-DOS in January 1994, and released two years later on the PlayStation, Sega Saturn, 3DO and FM Towns consoles. A sequel, Cyberia 2: Resurrection, was released in 1995 for both DOS and Windows 9x formats.
Jumanji is a 1995 American dark fantasy adventure film directed by Joe Johnston from a screenplay by Jonathan Hensleigh, Greg Taylor, and Jim Strain, based on the 1981 children's picture book of the same name by Chris Van Allsburg. The film is the first installment in the Jumanji film series and stars Robin Williams, Kirsten Dunst, David Alan Grier, Bonnie Hunt, Jonathan Hyde, and Bebe Neuwirth. The story centers on a supernatural board game that releases jungle–based hazards on its players with every turn they take.
The Adventures of Batman & Robin is a series of video game adaptations released between 1994 and 1995 featuring the DC Comics characters Batman and Robin based on Batman: The Animated Series. The games were released for numerous platforms, with the Genesis, Game Gear, and Sega CD versions published by Sega while the Super NES version was published by Konami.
Space Quest: Chapter I – The Sarien Encounter is a graphic adventure game, created by Scott Murphy and Mark Crowe, and released in October 1986 by Sierra On-Line. It is the first game in the Space Quest series, and sees players assume the role of a lowly janitor on a research ship, who becomes involved in stopping an alien race using a new form of technology for evil purposes.
Inca is a video game developed by Coktel Vision and published by Sierra On-Line in 1992. The game describes the conflict between Incas and Spaniards in a sci-fi, space opera setting. A sequel, Inca II: Wiracocha, was released in 1994.
Haiku Studios was a video game developer based in France, founded by Olivier Cordoleani and Hervé Lange in 1993. Cordoleani and Lange both worked on Iron and Flame (Atari), B.A.T. and B.A.T. II - The Koshan Conspiracy under the name Computer's Dream during the 1980s. The name Haiku Studios was coined in 1993 and consisted of Computer's Dream and several other developers.
In the 1990s, Philips Interactive Media published three action-adventure games based on Nintendo's Legend of Zelda franchise for its Compact Disc-Interactive (CD-i) players. The first two, Link: The Faces of Evil and Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon, were developed by Animation Magic and released simultaneously on October 10, 1993, and Zelda's Adventure was developed by Viridis and released on May 10, 1996. The two latter entries are the first to feature Princess Zelda as the protagonist instead of Link. Faces of Evil and Wand of Gamelon use the side-scrolling view introduced in Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (1987), while Zelda's Adventure has a top-down view reminiscent of the original 1986 game. All three are non-canon to the Zelda franchise.
Into the Eagle's Nest is a video game developed by Pandora and published in 1987 for Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Apple II, Atari ST, Commodore 64, IBM PC compatibles, and ZX Spectrum. Atari Corporation also released a cartridge version for the Atari 8-bit computers the following year on the Atari XEGS.
Stay Tooned! Unsweetened Multi-Game Experience! is a 1996 action-adventure video game that was developed by Funnybone Interactive and published by Sierra On-Line. In the game, the player must navigate through the apartment complex to find the TV remote to zap rogue cartoon characters back into TV Land.
Kinect: Disneyland Adventures is a 2011 open world video game developed by Frontier Developments and published by Microsoft Studios on Kinect for Xbox 360, with a remaster for Xbox One and Microsoft Windows developed by Asobo Studio released in 2017 as simply Disneyland Adventures. It takes place in a recreation of Disneyland Park in Anaheim, California, circa 2011, with themed games in place of many of the rides, while motion controls are used to play the game.
Winnie the Pooh is a media franchise produced by The Walt Disney Company, based on A. A. Milne and E. H. Shepard's stories featuring Winnie-the-Pooh. It started in 1966 with the theatrical release of the short Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree.
Alien Odyssey is an action-adventure game developed by Argonaut Software and published by Philips Media in 1995. The game features a mixture of first-person and third-person gameplay, with sequences involving shooter, adventure and puzzle mechanics. Alien Odyssey makes use of 3D rendering and full motion video cutscenes which were developed using the developer's proprietary B-Render graphics software. Upon release, the game received a mixed reception, with reviewers praising the visual presentation of the game, whilst critiquing the game's inconsistent mixture of game modes and short length.