Talk:Another World (video game)

Heart of Darkness a Sequel?

Would Heart of Darkness be considered a follow-up? MajorB 23:05, 11 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Mmm...

I liked Heart of Darkness very much, and it resembles the Another World world in many ways, but it's set in an another world than Another World.. (I'm sure I made some horrible grammar mistake there that would cause English Teachers worldwide to hang themselves from their genitals in despair). Anyways, I added it to the article.

I removed the trivia piece:

• Here's a bug most people don't notice. At the very beginning of the intro, Lester goes up an elevator, and into his lab. Later on, a lightning hits a metal surface on the ground floor, but Lester is sitting right behind it. How is that possible?

It's possible because Lester takes the elevator down, and not up. Somos

• (me again) First of all, even if the elevator goes down, he won't be sitting in the ground floor. Second of all, the lights above the elevator show that he is definitely going up!

Through the crack you see the elevator chamber going down (I'm %96 positive about this, I should d/l Another World and check). Besides, you can see the lightning travel quite a lot in the pipes before it hits Lester.

Does anybody else has an opinion about this?

The elevator goes down, wouldn't make sense to build a particle accelerator above the ground, the lightning then hits the accelerator, or better a piece of the building and the flash enters the accelerator, finally causing the explosion at another point of the accelerator which throws you into the other world. So this isn't a bug at all. Speaking about real bugs I know only one in the SNES version: when one goes from the waterfall to the right and then back again one ends up a screen below and not where one started. There are numerous other smaller issues, but those are not really bugs in the traditional sense, ie. the lion isn't attacked by the worms, when standing in front of the large tank laser beams are coming from the left, but when going a screen to the left nobody is there shooting, in the last screen of the game when one activates the teleporter one can manage it to get shoot shortly before being teleported up, one then ends up as normal on the dragon even so one was a black skeleton a few seconds ago. However those are probally not worth to mention

What might be worth to mention is that the PC, SNES and probally all other non-Amiga versions are longer, then the original Amiga one, ie. in the original you enter the tank directly after one gets rescued by the buddy from the dead-end, on the later version however around 15 new screens have been inserted inbetween that. There also was a version of the game for the Atari computers(disk image should be floating somewhere around on the net), but never officially released.

-- Grumbel 15:31, 4 October 2005 (UTC)

Typically a particle accelerator is built underground as a nature shield. One can easily check the Particle_accelerator wiki. The moving direction of the light can be either way depending on you are inside or outside of the elevorator. The accelerator in this game consists of a linear accelerator, a Synchrotron accelerator and a fixed target. I guess Eric Chahi knows some particle physists quite well. One bug here is that tough usually physists check the condition with an [event-display] just like the octagon(?) shape in the game, no one would sit in front of it as Lester does. You may be kill by the radiation before sent to Another World. Also, there's no beam pipe in the tunnel. Of course, being sent to Another World is the biggest bug. :)

--YChao 11:47, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

Released to the public domain?

Two items in the trivia section get my attention:

• Recently, this game was released to the public domain for play in the Game Boy Advance and via emulation with raw (Rewritten engine for Another World).
• It has also been released for the GP32 in the GBAX2005 Handheld Coding Competition.

I can find a link confirming the latter (and Chahi's blessing of it) but the sources I could find suggested that Eric Chahi was discouraging the emulation projects in the interest of a future commercial re-release -- a tricky feat to pull off if it really has been released to the public domain. Can anyone find some links to back this up?

The game is available for GBA from http://www.foxysofts.com/index.php?l=content/gba/anworld.inc However as far as I know its only freeware, not public domain. From what I understand the commercial release never happened and thats why you can get it as Freeware, however only for a limited number of platforms at the moment. The PC version, which was already up and running and closed down due to the possible commercial rerelease is still not available: http://membres.lycos.fr/cyxdown/raw/

-- Grumbel 02:58, 28 October 2005 (UTC)

Updating myself: The game got rereleased in the meantime as 15th Anniversary Edition. -- Grumbel 14:16, 30 November 2007 (UTC)

Jean-François Freitas

The above fellow should not be credited in the 'designers' column in the info box. Mr Freitas made some sound effects for the game, nothing more, and accordingly he gets a mention in the 'technical aspects' section. The only person who designed this game was Eric Chahi; he designed the game, programmed the game, and even did the artwork for the box. Jimd 00:12, 6 March 2006 (UTC)

Heart of the Alien was NOT a sequel to Another World, it is a prequel to it

A sequel is set AFTER the original.

Heart of the Alien is not set after Another World. Most of it is set during the same time as the Another World. And some of it is even set BEFORE the original.

A prequel is set BEFORE the original.

In Heart of the Alien, the player takes control of 'Buddy', the alien who befriends the human protagonist in Another World. We see 'Buddy' in events that are set BEFORE the original game.

So, is Heart of the Alien a sequel or a prequel? Clearly, the more fitting description is a prequel. Jimd 00:35, 6 March 2006 (UTC)

It has been a while since I played this, but I disagree. Granted, some events take place before and during the events of the first game, but some events must take place after as well. I mean, remember how Heart of the Alien revealed Lester's ultimate fate? He couldn't very well have made it to the end of Another World if everything in Heart of the Alien had happened first. Since it does show you events that happen after Another World and it does provide a resolution to plotlines that were started in Another World, I think calling it a sequel/side-story is more accurate than calling it a prequel. Or perhaps midquel would be even better.

HopelessAddict 01:49, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

Hey, look at Heart of the Alien article and read at the "Plot". It says 'The story picks up immediately after the end of the first game. You begin as Lester and his alien friend, "Buddy," land their pterodactyl in the ruins of Buddy's village'. So it's a SEQUEL. It says nothing about simultaneous action or meanwhiles. Pictureuploader 09:36, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

HopelessAddict, I understand what you are saying. We see some brief flashes of the future in Heart of the Alien. However the "fate" of Lester in Heart of the Alien could be interpreted in different ways. We merely see Buddy putting Lester into some form of pod. Lester could of been asleep or unconcious, or if he was dead, that pod could have been a regeneration device (has been suggested numerous times before.) Whichever the case, the game was not canon, as Eric Chahi had nothing to do with the development of that game. It is like considering a Star Wars movie as canon which has nothing to do with George Lucas, if you see what I mean. Neverless I agree with your edit, and that calling Heart of the Alien a midquel is reasonable. In fact calling it a midquel is probably more fitting then calling it a prequel. Jimd 11:49, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

"It is like considering a Star Wars movie as canon which has nothing to do with George Lucas..." Hehehe... and we will now, while disavowing much of Lucas's later work. If Chahi authorized the creation of HOTA it is rightly described as an official sequel, regardless of any later criticism on the original author's part. What is more, in this case, Chahi has not created any alternative to compete for canon status. 75.107.225.131 (talk) 14:04, 13 June 2014 (UTC)

Pictureuploader, all due respect, but did you actually ever play Heart of the Alien? We can reasonably discuss whether or not Heart of the Alien was a prequel or interquel to Another World; however to suggest it was a sequel is ridiculous to anybody who is familiar to the franchise. The game starts off with a very brief prologue, set AFTER Another World, in which nothing is revealed. The vast majority of Heart of the Alien co-incides with the events of Another World. We also see events BEFORE the time of Another World, in fact a lot more so then events AFTER Another World. Jimd 11:49, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

No I haven't, that's why i quote the article. The two articles are mutually contradicting. If you think one is wrong, then please, someone finally correct it. Pictureuploader 11:57, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

OK, I have corrected the Heart of the Alien article Jimd 17:16, 10 March 2006 (UTC)

User:Jimd, don't get me wrong, but have YOU? The game begins AFTER Another World, then a non-interactive sequence that takes place BEFORE and DURING the original plays. The rest of the game is set after the events of Chahi's production. Heart of the Alien is most definitely a sequel.

Story Analysis?

What in the world is that ludicrous pseudoanalysis supposed to be, and what place does it have in an encyclopedia article?

Relax dude. What makes it a 'ludicrous pseudoanalysis' and what authority do you have to call it that? I included it for consideration by the community, on equal terms with every single other contribution to this encyclopedia. I consider it a description of the tematic elements of the game. If you disagree, you can improve my contribution, discuss it constructively on this page or even delete it, just like in any other article. There is really no need to be an asshole. --AndersFeder 15:46, 1 August 2006 (UTC)

With all due respect (I mean that), I too found this section to be a 'ludicrous pseudoanalysis' (and agree with the associated comments). However, I also completely agree with the reply and justification. My two cents. --Fracture98 20:27, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

Thank you. As I wrote on my talk page, I think that the thematic side of this game is very important to its status as a classic and that an encyclopedia article which doesn't cover this side of it, at least superficially, is incomplete. This was my motivation for iniating the work on the analysis and I would appreciate if somebody produced a 'not-ludicrous, genuine analysis'. --AndersFeder 21:10, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

Unconfirmed (?) Info

Can someone please cite the source for "Today Chahi is working on a version of Another World with vector animation rendered at a higher resolution and more detailed background graphics."?

http://www.edge-online.co.uk/archives/2006/04/revisiting_anot.php Here's what I've seen. Ladlergo 18:20, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

There is a link on "The official homepage" that allows you to download/purchase an enhanced version for XP. I have have a copy I purchased from the link. It is enhanced somewhat (higher resolutions, etc), without detracting from the original (no new levels or over-the-top enhancements). I'll update the article with this information. --Fracture98 20:39, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

I added this information and then realized I had duplicated information in the new 'Releases' section. I've removed my edits as redundant. --Fracture98 20:54, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

Releases

I've added a Releases section and moved some Sequels stuff over to it, as appropriate. However this new section definitely needs more information. For example, the game was originally written for the Amiga as far as I know, and different versions have different graphics and sounds than others, and stuff like that should probably go in Releases. CGameProgrammer 21:28, 14 April 2006 (UTC)

Cleanup tag

The article is currently inconsistent, has an advocative tone and doesn't really flow properly. I imagine it contains all the right information, but it needs a thorough rewrite for style. Chris Cunningham 09:34, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

Many thanks to Retodon8 for doing some hefty cleanup work. The article still needs a bit of spit and polish (especially in the references department) and could be less sympathetic to Chahi but it's much better than it was. Chris Cunningham 10:36, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

The image

The image of Lester crossing a bridge is clearly from an early Amiga version or something.

I'm getting the PC Collector's Edition soon and will replace it with a high-res version.

Ironically

"Ironically, a science fiction sitcom called Out of This World aired at the same time of the game's US release."

This is a coincidence, not irony. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 69.55.232.38 (talk • contribs) 04:56, March 1, 2007 (UTC)

No, it is ironic. "Coincidentally" doesn't do the paragraph justice. It's ironic because they changed the name from Another World to Out Of This World to avoid having the same name as a TV show, but then a TV show called Out Of This World came out anyway, thus making the name change useless. I'm going to change it back. Sir Lemming 18:19, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

Heart of the Alien - sprites?

What? --HanzoHattori 06:07, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

I can only guess that you're referring to: "The game was similar in visual style to Another World, although Heart of the Alien's programmers opted instead to use standard sprites instead of Chahi's 2D polygonal style, as they were quicker and easier to implement." Could you be a bit more specific? --GargoyleMT 13:45, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Yes, and this is false. Sprites were in Heart of Darkness AFAIR. --HanzoHattori 14:18, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

So Heart of the Alien is polygons, and Heart of Darkness is sprites? If you know the article is wrong, correcting it is a valuable service. --GargoyleMT 03:19, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Chahi had nothing to do with Heart of the Alien?

Chahi had nothing to do with the development of the game, beyond suggesting Lester's death, and he has since regretted that decision stating that he did not like it because it made a definite conclusion to the story, which Chahi had deliberately left open-ended.[4]

The Another World and Heart of the Alien articles seem to disagree on this. The citation in the Heart of the Alien article points to an interview where Chahi apparantly does talk about working on Heart of the Alien for 6 years. The citation in the Another World article points to a citation in the Heart of the Alien article which is a broken link.

Probably for accuracy's sake this should be cleaned up. Ian Lewis 02:13, 10 July 2007 (UTC)

Chahi worked on Heart of Darkness (game) for six years, which is a completly new game independed from Another World. Heart of the Alien is a direct sequel to Another World and Chahi didn't work on that. -- 87.122.213.106 14:01, 30 November 2007 (UTC)

Re: The Last Sentence in the Gameplay Section

The game did have text in it apart from the title. The intro is full of text and does a great deal to set up the action and the world. I would consider revising it. 207.6.249.142 (talk) —Preceding comment was added at 06:12, 22 November 2007 (UTC)

As far as I remember the intro text was only in some later versions (SNES), not the original Amiga one. The only text that featured in the original was the computer greeting Lester, which might be worth to mention, but didn't really have any impact on the story or gameplay. -- Grumbel

Ranking on Mobygames.com

The article states Moby Games ranked this the #1 DOS game of all time. It is actually ranked #2, behind The Secret of Monkey Island. http://www.mobygames.com/stats/top_games —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.185.7.104 (talk) 02:58, 8 February 2008 (UTC)

It might've well been #1 at one time. Currently it's indeed #2 at the "mobyscore". It's not found on that mobyrank.

Fair use rationale for Image:AnotherWorld Cover 960.jpg

Image:AnotherWorld Cover 960.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images lacking such an explanation can be deleted one week after being tagged, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.

BetacommandBot (talk) 03:57, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Another World 1.PNG

Image:Another World 1.PNG is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images lacking such an explanation can be deleted one week after being tagged, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.

BetacommandBot (talk) 19:09, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

Ports

i want to point out that there is a wii port out too. http://wiibrew.org/wiki/Raw 75.36.132.97 (talk) 23:55, 26 February 2009 (UTC)

In 2018, after Josh Prod acquired a License to port it to the Dreamcast, it was also released as Another world HD. This article covers every release but the 2018 HD release for Dreamcast. How so? PettrK (talk) 21:55, 3 March 2020 (UTC)

We need sources for that and the best I Can find is from Play Asia. --Masem (t) 22:05, 3 March 2020 (UTC)

Technical details?

I would like to know more of the technical details like:

• in what language was it programmed in? AFAIK that would be Assembly(using devpac assembler). There is also a separate level editor done in basic.
• where was it programmed on? AFAIK Amiga 500
• How big was the final program in Kb or Mb? AFAIK it was small enough to fit on a 5.25" disk. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 189.60.25.241 (talk • contribs) 02:50, 9 March 2009

The IBM/Tandy version was distributed on one 1.2 MB DSHD 5.25-inch diskette and two 720 kB 3.5-inch diskettes to accommodate customers with either type of floppy drive. The program's executable file, WORLD.EXE, is 21 kB in size. It was written in Borland Turbo C, according to a string embedded in the excutable, visible when one examines the file with an hex editor.—Quicksilver^{T @} 02:26, 10 June 2010 (UTC)

The Windows 3.1 / MS-DOS version

it says the win 3.1 version came in 1995. That may be so, but why is there no mention of the MS-DOS version. Me and my friends played it together for days way back in 1993-94 already.Nunamiut (talk) 05:37, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

It's listed in the Infobox as "DOS", which includes IBM PC-DOS and MS-DOS. —Quicksilver^{T @} 21:29, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

'From Dust'

Eric is making a new game for XBLA and PS3 called 'From Dust'. Perhaps this could be added to the section about Eric taking a break and beign excited to make new games? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 143.117.13.81 (talk) 11:08, 19 August 2010 (UTC)

DRM on 15th Anniversary edition

This information was obviously included in order to slam the inconvenience of DRM. I removed some biased language but I have to wonder if including information about the DRM is even necessary at all. The paragraph doesn't cite any sources and I personally don't think it's relevant at all to the article's topic. 24.168.240.243 (talk) 05:46, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

GA Review

This review is transcluded from Talk:Another World (video game)/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Reviewer: FJ 1 (talk · contribs) 08:32, 19 October 2012 (UTC)

I'll review this article. FJ 1 (talk) 08:32, 19 October 2012 (UTC)

GA review (see here for what the criteria are, and here for what they are not)

1. It is reasonably well written.

   a (prose): b (MoS for lead, layout, word choice, fiction, and lists):

   The are a few grammar mistakes. I suggest doing the following changes: "re-load" -> "reload", "but it does include" -> "but it includes", "Flashback does seem" -> "Flashback seems". I see it is fixed; now it seems OK. FJ 1 (talk) 12:46, 25 October 2012 (UTC)

2. It is factually accurate and verifiable.

   a (references): b (citations to reliable sources): c (OR):

   In my opinion, CyberRoach is a weak source. It doesn't provide any direct information about the Atari Jaguar's port. GPATemp is a message board and shouldn't be used. Megidish.net is also a questionable source. These sources are now deleted FJ 1 (talk) 12:46, 25 October 2012 (UTC) The sources providing to magazines are imprecise (no site numbers), as well as the source providing to the manual. (Sorry, there's no need of precising them for GA FJ 1 (talk) 13:22, 25 October 2012 (UTC)). I found the lack of sources in the following sections: the overall 15th Anniversary re-release/ (It's OK now. FJ 1 (talk) 13:22, 25 October 2012 (UTC)); too few in Legacy (maybe a source for this sentence: "Flashback… is often mistaken as a sequel to Another World because of similar gameplay and graphics."?); and lack of any sources in the Gameplay section. I would be also grateful if you can put the citations in the cite templates (but it's not necessary). It's much improved now FJ 1 (talk) 16:17, 30 October 2012 (UTC) The content doesn't also explain the following sentence of the lead: "Another World was highly innovative in its use of cinematic effects in the graphics, sound and cut scenes, with characters communicating through their facial features, gestures and actions only." The sentence seems reorganized. FJ 1 (talk) 12:46, 25 October 2012 (UTC)

3. It is broad in its coverage.

   a (major aspects): b (focused):

   I don't think the list of unofficial ports is necessary for the article about video game in Wikipedia. I see the list is more precise and reduced to authorized ports. OK. FJ 1 (talk) 12:46, 25 October 2012 (UTC)

4. It follows the neutral point of view policy.

   Fair representation without bias:

   There are unsourced, unneutral wordings such as "This cinematic style granted it a cult status amongst critics and fans", "The digital rights management on the 15th Anniversary Edition CD-ROM is particularly draconian". The sentences are now smoothed. FJ 1 (talk) 12:46, 25 October 2012 (UTC)

5. It is stable.

   No edit wars, etc.:

6. It is illustrated by images, where possible and appropriate.

   a (images are tagged and non-free images have fair use rationales): b (appropriate use with suitable captions):

7. Overall:

   Pass/Fail:

I removed a hell of repeating refs after every single sentence and now they're only sourcing whole paragraphs, unless another ref is used in-between. --Niemti (talk) 13:26, 24 October 2012 (UTC)

• OK, I see that you have done much improvement, but the Gameplay section still remains unsourced, and some references to the printed sources are still imprecise, too (I revert the latter, there is no need for GA FJ 1 (talk) 13:22, 25 October 2012 (UTC)). FJ 1 (talk) 12:46, 25 October 2012 (UTC)
• After the second look, I see the article much improved. I have no further comments, so I pass the article. Good job! FJ 1 (talk) 16:17, 30 October 2012 (UTC)

Any citation for DRM limitaton of this version? I checked this with the german version. No serial number, no limit of 5 installations, no internet connection is required.--141.24.17.208 (talk) 09:04, 23 May 2014 (UTC)

Plot?

Is the added plot on 26/12/14 something from a later rerelease of the game? Otherwise i appears to have been made up, it's not in the older ones: "Buddy lands the creature on a desolate part of the planet where the aliens can't see them. However, right when Buddy lands the creature, Lester dies of his injuries. Buddy lays Lester's body in a church, and Buddy looks at him in sorrow." — Preceding unsigned comment added by 115.64.89.165 (talk) 07:21, 19 January 2015 (UTC)

Best I can recall w/o playing the game, this doesn't happen, and I see someone has removed it already. --MASEM (t) 20:09, 19 January 2015 (UTC)