| Ubik | |
|---|---|
 Cover art | |
| Developer(s) | Cryo Interactive |
| Publisher(s) | Cryo Interactive |
| Composer(s) | Eric Los |
| Platform(s) | PlayStation, Windows |
| Release | 1998 |
| Genre(s) | Action, Strategy |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Ubik is a 1998 video game by Cryo Interactive, based on the novel Ubik by Philip K. Dick.
In the year 2019, Joe Chip is working for Runciter Associates in Los Angeles, where he is tasked with preventing enemy companies from spying on his clients.
The player has to lead, train and equip a team of five combatants (including Joe Chip) and complete missions in 3D-rendered maps. Though the backgrounds are prerendered, players can choose from a limited number of different camera angles for each scene. [1] Shooting is a key aspect of the gameplay. The missions include killing all enemies, rescuing hostages and stealing corporate secrets. [1]
The developers thought long and hard about how to translate Dick's work into a video game. Fans of the time associated him with the world of the Blade Runner movie, so the team felt compelled to stick to this. However, they wanted to avoid a wholly science fiction route and instead stay somewhat true to the book. They thought that Dick's 1960s description of the future was more in the tone of Starsky & Hutch, whereas they wanted to update this with a Blade Runner or Total Recall dark cynicism. [2] The PlayStation conversion was difficult due to the hardware not supporting z-buffering. [1]
John Saavedra of Den Of Geek thought the convoluted plot wasn't suitable for a strategy game. [3] Brutoom of Hardcore Gaming 101 thought that the game merged different genres together, and pushed creative boundaries. [4]
Blade Runner is a 1982 science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott, and written by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples. Starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, and Edward James Olmos, it is an adaptation of Philip K. Dick's 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? The film is set in a dystopian future Los Angeles of 2019, in which synthetic humans known as replicants are bio-engineered by the powerful Tyrell Corporation to work on space colonies. When a fugitive group of advanced replicants led by Roy Batty (Hauer) escapes back to Earth, burnt-out cop Rick Deckard (Ford) reluctantly agrees to hunt them down.
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Philip Kindred Dick, often referred to by his initials PKD, was an American science fiction writer. He wrote 44 novels and about 121 short stories, most of which appeared in science fiction magazines during his lifetime. His fiction explored varied philosophical and social questions such as the nature of reality, perception, human nature, and identity, and commonly featured characters struggling against elements such as alternate realities, illusory environments, monopolistic corporations, drug abuse, authoritarian governments, and altered states of consciousness.
Ubik is a 1969 science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick. The story is set in a future 1992 where psychic powers are utilized in corporate espionage, while cryonic technology allows recently deceased people to be maintained in a lengthy state of hibernation. It follows Joe Chip, a technician at a psychic agency who begins to experience strange alterations in reality that can be temporarily reversed by a mysterious store-bought substance called Ubik. This work expands upon characters and concepts previously introduced in the vignette "What the Dead Men Say".
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is a dystopian science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick, first published in 1968. The novel is set in a post-apocalyptic San Francisco, where Earth's life has been greatly damaged by a nuclear global war, leaving most animal species endangered or extinct. The main plot follows Rick Deckard, a bounty hunter who has to "retire" six escaped Nexus-6 model androids, while a secondary plot follows John Isidore, a man of sub-par IQ who aids the fugitive androids.
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Cryo Interactive Entertainment was a French video game development and publishing company founded in 1990, but existing unofficially since 1989 as a developer group under the name Cryo.
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G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero is a 1991 run and gun game published by Taxan for the Nintendo Entertainment System based on the toyline of the same name. The game was produced by Ken Lobb and developed by the same Japanese team that later formed KID. A sequel developed by the same team, titled G.I. Joe: The Atlantis Factor, was released the following year, but was published by Capcom after Taxan went out of business.
Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers is a platform game developed and published by Capcom based on the Disney animated series of the same name. Originally released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in Japan and North America in 1990, it came to Europe the next year, and was ported to the Nintendo PlayChoice-10 arcade system. It sold approximately 1.2 million copies worldwide.
Atlantis: The Lost Tales is a 1997 fantasy adventure video game developed and published by Cryo Interactive Entertainment. Interplay Productions published the game in North America, where it released on September 30, 1997. The game is named after its initial and most important setting, Atlantis. It is the first in a Myst-like series, and was followed by Atlantis II, Atlantis III: The New World, Atlantis Evolution and The Secrets of Atlantis: The Sacred Legacy.
Getsu Fūma Den is an action role-playing video game developed and published by Konami for the Family Computer in 1987 exclusively in Japan. It has been referenced in many subsequent Konami titles throughout the years. The game is structurally similar to Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, The Goonies II and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES).
The bibliography of Philip K. Dick includes 44 novels, 121 short stories, and 14 short story collections published by American science fiction author Philip K. Dick during his lifetime.
Blade Runner is a 1982 science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott.
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Blade Runner is an American neo-noir science fiction media franchise originating from the 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick, about the character of Rick Deckard. The book has been adapted into several media, including films, comics, a stage play, and a radio serial. The first film adaptation was Blade Runner, directed by Ridley Scott in 1982. Although the film initially underperformed at the American box office, it became a cult classic, and has had a significant influence on science fiction. A novelization and a comic adaptation of the film were released in the same year. From 1995 to 2000, three novels serving as sequels to both Blade Runner and the original novel were written by K. W. Jeter, a friend of Dick's. A film sequel to Blade Runner, Blade Runner 2049, was released in 2017. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Blade Runner in 2012, a short film was released, and in the lead up to the release of Blade Runner 2049, several more short films detailing events that occurred between 2019 and 2049 were released. The influence of the franchise has helped spawn the cyberpunk genre.
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