| Redjack: Revenge of the Brethren | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Cyberflix |
| Publisher(s) | THQ |
| Producer(s) | Bob Clouse |
| Programmer(s) | Steve Britton |
| Artist(s) | Eric Whited Steven McBride |
| Writer(s) | Molly Johnson Bill Appleton |
| Composer(s) | Scott Scheinbaum |
| Platform(s) | Windows, Mac OS |
| Release | |
| Genre(s) | Action-adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Redjack: Revenge of the Brethren is an action-adventure video game developed by Cyberflix and released by THQ for Windows and Mac OS in 1998.
Redjack uses several different engines: the main engine is a rotatory 3D engine, which is used for exploration. When the character enters a fight, the game loads a new screen. There are also different screens for different scenarios, such as concocting volatile drinks, shooting from a cannon on a speeding cart, and puzzles.
The player assumes the role of a young blond-haired man named Nicholas Dove who inhabits Lizard Point. He is pressured by people that are close to him to make something of himself. Nicholas decides to join a pirate crew in order to make a living. He meets a pirate named Lyle who, after saving him from assassins, tells him that Captain Justice is hiring men because he lost some in an "accident". Captain Justice only hires those that are generally brave enough to form his crew and dares Nicholas to kill a shark. After killing the shark (with poison) and finding a sword and learning to fight from Lyle, Nicholas joins the crew.
After taking the pirate's oath, Nicholas roams the ship and meets Sullivan, who is revealed to be a woman named Anne disguised as a man. When the ship docks at Port Royal, Nicholas is given a watch by Captain Justice. He visits Erzulie who tells him of his future. Nicholas witnesses Captain Justice being murdered by assassins and is blamed for it as he has the captain's watch. After escaping from prison he is captured by Bone and saved later on by Lyle, who maroons him with Sullivan, who was found out.
Nicholas washes ashore onto Redjack Island where he discovers Redjack's corpse. He lights a fire signal and is found by a balloon ship. He is escorted to Blackbeard's fortress and requests an audience. Blackbeard tells Nicholas some of the mythology of the brethren but is knocked unconscious by Bone and his men. Nicholas kills Bone and set sail for Cartagena.
Nicholas enters the city through a secret sewer entrance. He frees his captive friends, Elizabeth and his brother. He enters the Viceroy's room and get captured by a man named Marquez, who is revealed to have betrayed Redjack. After breaking up the reunion of the brethren, Nicholas kills Marquez and rescues Anne before sinking the Spanish fleet and rescuing Blackbeard. The game ends with Nicholas finding treasure at the wreckage of Redjack's ship.
According to Jack Neely of Metro Pulse , developer CyberFlix had Redjack "on the drawing board for years" in various forms as it developed other games, such as Titanic: Adventure Out of Time . [2] PC Gamer US reported in early 1995 that the game, then called RedJack's Revenge, was being created concurrently with Titanic and was "in the early stages" of development. [3] [4] Despite the other pirate-themed games of the period, a writer for the magazine noted that "Cyberflix feels the outlaw spirit and mysterious lives of these roguish individuals just hasn't been given the full attention they deserve." The game was set for release in the fall of 1995. [3] Ultimately, it did not launch until September 22, 1998. [5]
In February 1996, the magazine reported that Red Jack's Revenge had been pushed back to a late-1996 launch alongside Titanic, and was set to be a musical. [6] This version of the game had a lighthearted tone, with songs written by CyberFlix composer Scott Scheinbaum, among others. CyberFlix ultimately reworked the project after its musical version was "laughed out of a focus group", according to artist Jay Nevins. As a result, the team opted instead for a more serious theme, a redesign that delayed Redjack past its earlier ship date. [2]
| Aggregator | Score |
|---|---|
| GameRankings | 69% [7] |
| Publication | Score |
|---|---|
| Adventure Gamers |   [8] |
| AllGame | [9] |
| Computer Games Strategy Plus | [10] |
| Computer Gaming World | [11] |
| EP Daily | 7/10 [12] |
| GameRevolution | B [13] |
| GameSpot | 6/10 [14] |
| Hyper | 57% [15] |
| MacLife | "Spiffy" [16] |
| Macworld | [17] |
| Next Generation | [18] |
| PC Gamer (US) | 58% [19] |
| PC Zone | 75% [20] |
| MacHome |  [21] |
The game received average reviews according to the review aggregation website GameRankings. [7] Next Generation wrote, "While not as accessible as Titanic , Redjack may just transform steadfast adventure gamers over to the action genre." [18] Macworld 's Michael Gowan wrote that Redjack "features a good story line, slightly rough language, and arcadelike swordplay that's a bit too hard to master." He summarized it as an "enjoyable pirate adventure". [17]
Jack Neely of Metro Pulse wrote in October 1999, "RedJack didn't sell nearly as well as hoped; its total sales may have been as little as 10,000 nationwide, hardly 1 percent of Titanic's success." [2]
The Electric Playground nominated the game for their 1998 "Best Adventure Game" award, which ultimately went to Grim Fandango . [22] Shoeless Lyle earned a runner-up position for the publication's "Best New Game Character" prize as well, but lost to Aya Brea of Parasite Eve . [23]
Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard, was an English pirate who operated around the West Indies and the eastern coast of Britain's North American colonies. Little is known about his early life, but he may have been a sailor on privateer ships during Queen Anne's War before he settled on the Bahamian island of New Providence, a base for Captain Benjamin Hornigold, whose crew Teach joined around 1716. Hornigold placed him in command of a sloop that he had captured, and the two engaged in numerous acts of piracy. Their numbers were boosted by the addition to their fleet of two more ships, one of which was commanded by Stede Bonnet, but Hornigold retired from piracy toward the end of 1717, taking two vessels with him.
Captain Jack Sparrow is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the Pirates of the Caribbean film series and franchise. An early iteration of Sparrow was created by screenwriters Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, but the final version of the character was created by actor Johnny Depp, who also portrayed him.
Benjamin Hornigold (1680–1719) was an English pirate who operated during the tail end of the Golden Age of Piracy.
Captain Hector Barbossa is a fictional character of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, depicted by Geoffrey Rush and appearing in all five films in the series. He first debut in The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) as a cursed undead skeleton, where he dies at the end of the film. However, the character is revealed to have been resurrected and brought back from the dead by Tia Dalma by the end of Dead Man's Chest, and has since appeared in an anti-heroic role. Captain Hector Barbossa was one of the nine Pirate Lords in At World's End (2007), a privateer in service to King George II and the British Navy while also seeking revenge against Blackbeard in On Stranger Tides (2011), as well as a rich rogue and influential leader of a prosperous pirate empire and fleet in Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017). Throughout the series, Barbossa has been conceptualized as a "dark trickster" and the evil counterpart of Captain Jack Sparrow.
Titanic: Adventure Out of Time is a 1996 point-and-click adventure game developed by CyberFlix and published in the United States and United Kingdom by GTE Entertainment and Europress respectively, for Windows and Macintosh. It takes place in a virtual representation of the RMS Titanic, following a British spy who has been sent back in time to the night Titanic sank and must complete a previously failed mission to prevent World War I, the Russian Revolution, and World War II from occurring. The gameplay involves exploring the ship and solving puzzles. There are multiple outcomes and endings to the game depending on the player's interactions with characters and use of items.
Stede Bonnet was a Barbadian-born pirate and military officer, known as the Gentleman Pirate because he was a moderately wealthy landowner before turning to a life of crime. Bonnet was born into a wealthy English family on the island of Barbados, and inherited the family estate after his father's death in 1694. Despite his lack of sailing experience, Bonnet decided he should turn to piracy in the spring of 1717. He bought a sailing vessel, the Revenge, and travelled with his paid crew along the Eastern Seaboard of what is now the United States, capturing other vessels and burning other Barbadian ships.
Alone in the Dark 2 is a 1993 survival horror video game developed and published by Infogrames. It is the second installment in the Alone in the Dark series. It was ported to the PC-98 and FM Towns in 1994 and to the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer in 1995 under the same name, and to the Sega Saturn and PlayStation in 1996 as Alone in the Dark: Jack Is Back in Europe, and renamed as Alone in the Dark: One-Eyed Jack's Revenge in North America.
Queen Anne's Revenge was an early-18th-century ship, most famously used as a flagship by Edward Teach, better known by his nickname Blackbeard. The date and place of the ship's construction are uncertain, and there is no record of its actions prior to 1710 when it was operating as a French privateer under the name La Concorde. Surviving features of the ship's construction strongly suggest it was built by French shipwrights, based on differences in fastening patterns in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. After several years of service by French sailors, she was captured by Blackbeard in 1717. Blackbeard used the ship for less than a year, but captured numerous prizes using her as his flagship.
The Black Pearl is a fictional ship in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series. In the screenplay, the ship is easily recognized by her distinctive black hull and sails. Captained by Captain Jack Sparrow, the Black Pearl is said to be "nigh uncatchable". In the first three films, she either overtakes or flees all other ships, including both the Interceptor, which is regarded as the fastest ship in the Caribbean, and the Flying Dutchman, which is faster than the wind. Her speed is derived from several factors such as the large number of sails she carries and being partly supernatural. As stated in Dead Man's Chest and At World's End, the Black Pearl is "the only ship that can outrun the Dutchman" and this is evidenced in the maelstrom battle between the two ships in the movies.
On Stranger Tides is a 1987 historical fantasy supernatural novel by American writer Tim Powers. It was nominated for the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel, and placed second in the annual Locus poll for best fantasy novel.
CyberFlix Incorporated was a computer game company founded in 1993 by Bill Appleton. CyberFlix was based in Knoxville, Tennessee. They made many interactive story-telling games in the 1990s, but stopped any and all productions in 1998 before finally going out of business in 2006.
Blackbeard is a 2006 American adventure-drama television miniseries based on the pirate Blackbeard, directed by Kevin Connor from a screenplay written by Bryce Zabel. It premiered on Hallmark Channel on June 17, 2006. The miniseries was shot on location in Thailand and the town of New Providence was built on a coconut plantation, and includes many factual names and places, but it is essentially a fictional story since Blackbeard's most notable exploits took place in North Carolina.
See also 1717 in piracy, 1719 in piracy, and Timeline of piracy.
Israel Hands, also known as Basilica Hands, was an 18th-century pirate best known for being second in command to Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard. His name serves as the basis for the name of the villainous sidekick in Robert Louis Stevenson's 1883 novel Treasure Island.
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides is a 2011 American fantasy swashbuckler film directed by Rob Marshall and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, from a screenplay by the writing team of Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio. The fourth installment in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series, it is loosely based on the 1987 novel On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers and serves as a stand-alone sequel to At World's End (2007). The film stars Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush, and Kevin R. McNally, who reprise their roles from the previous films, alongside Penélope Cruz, Ian McShane, Sam Claflin and Àstrid Bergès-Frisbey. The story follows the eccentric pirate Captain Jack Sparrow forced into a shaky alliance with Angelica, a mysterious woman from his past, as they embark on a quest for the Fountain of Youth. Jack is forced aboard the Queen Anne's Revenge, contends with the infamous pirate Blackbeard, and enters an uneasy alliance with rival Hector Barbossa.
Lego Pirates of the Caribbean is a discontinued Lego theme that is based on the film series of the same name. It is licensed from Walt Disney Pictures and Jerry Bruckheimer Films. There are nine known sets. The first wave was released in May 2011 with the second wave coming out in November 2011. In November 2010, it was officially announced by Lego that the video game Lego Pirates of the Caribbean: The Video Game was in production. It was released on May 10, 2011, in North America. The series acts as a thematic replacement for the popular Lego Pirates theme, featuring many of the same elements. Most of the sets are similar to the Lego Pirates theme. The theme was first introduced in 2011 and discontinued in 2017.
Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard, was a notorious English pirate who operated around the West Indies and the eastern coast of the American colonies during the early 18th century. He captained the Queen Anne's Revenge, a 200-ton frigate originally named the Concord, and died in a fierce battle with troops from Virginia on November 22, 1718, at Ocracoke Island.
Nautilus Productions LLC is an American video production, stock footage, and photography company incorporated in Fayetteville, North Carolina in 1997. The principals are producer/director Rick Allen and photographer Cindy Burnham. Nautilus specializes in documentary production and underwater videography, and produced QAR DiveLive, a live webcast of underwater archaeology filmed at the wreck of the Queen Anne's Revenge in 2000 and 2001.
Sir Henry Morgan was a Welsh pirate, privateer and buccaneer. He made himself famous during activities in the Caribbean, primarily raiding Spanish settlements. He earned a reputation as one of the most notorious and successful privateers in history, and one of the most ruthless among those active along the Spanish Main.
Pirate adventure game Red Jack [sic]: Revenge of the Brethren is now available in retail stores...