AMBER: Journeys Beyond
Encyclopedia
AMBER: Journeys Beyond is an American
computer game
released in 1996 for Apple Macintosh
computers and Windows 95
. It is the only game produced by Hue Forest Entertainment, founded by Frank and Susan Wimmer.
point and click
adventure game
similar to Myst
. Gameplay is nonlinear and events in the game occur at random depending on the player's progress.
You (the protagonist
) have come home from work and check your e-mail. It seems that your friend Dr. Roxanne ("Roxy") Westbridge has recently purchased a reportedly haunted house in North Carolina
and is performing paranormal
tests there. A friend of yours asks you to check on her, as he is worried that she may be too hasty with the still undeveloped ghost hunting
equipment. You drive to the house by means of the highway and then a long dirt road leading to it. Suddenly, in the middle of the road an apparition
appears as you are turning left to follow the road. You swerve to the right to avoid the ghostly shape and end up buried in the nearby pond. As you emerge soaking wet from the pond, you explore the garage and house. Roxy appears to be unconscious in the garage with a device on her head and the house has no electricity.
After restoring electricity, and exploring inside the house you discover that Roxy has several types of ghost hunting equipment: surveillance cameras
, the BAR (Bulbic Activity Reader), a doorknob sensor which detects spiritual residue in doorknobs
, the PeeK, a pocket television-like device which allows the user to listen to the sounds in the doorknobs, and works with the BAR and cameras to observe spiritual activity from a safe distance, and the AMBER (Astral Mobility By Electromagnetic Resonance) device itself, which allows the user to actually enter the minds of ghosts to discover what they are thinking and seeing and to remind them of who they are so they may ascend. The last device is still in the testing phase and its use is considered to be very risky. Apparently Roxy's spirit is lost "somewhere" while she was attempting to use the AMBER device.
Through the combined use of the devices you discover that there are three resident ghosts in and around the house. Brice, a gardener who believed that UFO
s would come to take him away. He fell in love (or obsession) with his employer's daughter, Mandy, who disliked him and didn't share his interests. When he believed that they were finally coming, he banged on the backdoor to the house and called Mandy, who answered. Mandy did not respond positively, so he killed her and placed the body in a hidden compartment under the gazebo he had built. Subsequently, he killed her parents and committed suicide after he realized what he had done. After you assist his spirit, he is received by the aliens; however, rather than being sent to paradise, he is sent to another unpleasant place.
Another ghost is Margaret, whose husband is overseas fighting in World War II
. She expects him to come home the next day and has baked a "Welcome Home" cake for him. However, she receives a message saying that her husband has been killed. She commits suicide. After you assist her spirit, she joins her husband's spirit in the afterlife.
The final ghost is Edwin, a child who was sledding when he ended up on the frozen pond. The ice broke and he was trapped beneath it and drowned. You reunite him with his teddy bear and clown doll in Edwin's underwater castle.
After the three ghosts are freed, you help Roxy by doing some programming with her computer, which tells you to place the AMBER on her head then leave the area quickly. After doing so, you stand a safe distance from the garage which apparently explodes. Roxy emerges from the flames seemingly unscathed and unaware of all the events that took place. She thanks you and explains the algorithm
s for AMBER probably need tweaking (hence the explosion); she asks if everything is all right in the house. Roxy excitedly explains the results of these tests of AMBER should be sent to the lab very soon. In the final moments of the game, Roxy asks, "Where'd you park your car?"
. In April 1997, when the game was reviewed in Computer Gaming World
, it received four stars. Newsweek
also gave a positive review in their November 1996 issue.
In later years, the game received praise from several online reviewers and currently has a cult following
. The game was not without its criticism however, many of the critics and players felt that the game was not long enough and that the conclusion was anticlimactic.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
computer game
Personal computer game
A PC game, also known as a computer game, is a video game played on a personal computer, rather than on a video game console or arcade machine...
released in 1996 for Apple Macintosh
Macintosh
The Macintosh , or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced by Apple's then-chairman Steve Jobs on January 24, 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a...
computers and Windows 95
Windows 95
Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented graphical user interface-based operating system. It was released on August 24, 1995 by Microsoft, and was a significant progression from the company's previous Windows products...
. It is the only game produced by Hue Forest Entertainment, founded by Frank and Susan Wimmer.
Gameplay
AMBER: Journeys Beyond is a first-personGraphic adventure game
A graphic adventure game is a form of adventure game. They are distinct from text adventures. Whereas a player must actively observe using commands such as "look" in a text-based adventure, graphic adventures revolutionized gameplay by making use of natural human perception...
point and click
Point-and-click
Point-and-click is the action of a computer user moving a cursor to a certain location on a screen and then pressing a mouse button, usually the left button , or other pointing device...
adventure game
Adventure game
An adventure game is a video game in which the player assumes the role of protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and puzzle-solving instead of physical challenge. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based media such as literature and film,...
similar to Myst
Myst
Myst is a graphic adventure video game designed and directed by the brothers Robyn and Rand Miller. It was developed by Cyan , a Spokane, Washington––based studio, and published and distributed by Brøderbund. The Millers began working on Myst in and released it for the Mac OS computer on September...
. Gameplay is nonlinear and events in the game occur at random depending on the player's progress.
Plot
Note: Minor details such as puzzles and their solutions have been omitted for simplicity. As the game is nonlinear, events described below may not necessarily occur in that order when playing the game.You (the protagonist
Protagonist
A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
) have come home from work and check your e-mail. It seems that your friend Dr. Roxanne ("Roxy") Westbridge has recently purchased a reportedly haunted house in North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
and is performing paranormal
Paranormal
Paranormal is a general term that designates experiences that lie outside "the range of normal experience or scientific explanation" or that indicates phenomena understood to be outside of science's current ability to explain or measure...
tests there. A friend of yours asks you to check on her, as he is worried that she may be too hasty with the still undeveloped ghost hunting
Ghost hunting
Ghost Hunting is the process of investigating locations that are reported to be haunted by ghosts.Typically, a ghost hunting team will attempt to collect evidence claimed to be supportive of paranormal activity...
equipment. You drive to the house by means of the highway and then a long dirt road leading to it. Suddenly, in the middle of the road an apparition
Ghost
In traditional belief and fiction, a ghost is the soul or spirit of a deceased person or animal that can appear, in visible form or other manifestation, to the living. Descriptions of the apparition of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to...
appears as you are turning left to follow the road. You swerve to the right to avoid the ghostly shape and end up buried in the nearby pond. As you emerge soaking wet from the pond, you explore the garage and house. Roxy appears to be unconscious in the garage with a device on her head and the house has no electricity.
After restoring electricity, and exploring inside the house you discover that Roxy has several types of ghost hunting equipment: surveillance cameras
Closed-circuit television
Closed-circuit television is the use of video cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place, on a limited set of monitors....
, the BAR (Bulbic Activity Reader), a doorknob sensor which detects spiritual residue in doorknobs
Stone Tape
The Stone Tape theory is a paranormal hypothesis that was proposed in the 1970s as a possible explanation for ghosts. It speculates that inanimate materials can absorb some form of energy from living beings; the hypothesis speculates that this "recording" happens especially during moments of high...
, the PeeK, a pocket television-like device which allows the user to listen to the sounds in the doorknobs, and works with the BAR and cameras to observe spiritual activity from a safe distance, and the AMBER (Astral Mobility By Electromagnetic Resonance) device itself, which allows the user to actually enter the minds of ghosts to discover what they are thinking and seeing and to remind them of who they are so they may ascend. The last device is still in the testing phase and its use is considered to be very risky. Apparently Roxy's spirit is lost "somewhere" while she was attempting to use the AMBER device.
Through the combined use of the devices you discover that there are three resident ghosts in and around the house. Brice, a gardener who believed that UFO
Unidentified flying object
A term originally coined by the military, an unidentified flying object is an unusual apparent anomaly in the sky that is not readily identifiable to the observer as any known object...
s would come to take him away. He fell in love (or obsession) with his employer's daughter, Mandy, who disliked him and didn't share his interests. When he believed that they were finally coming, he banged on the backdoor to the house and called Mandy, who answered. Mandy did not respond positively, so he killed her and placed the body in a hidden compartment under the gazebo he had built. Subsequently, he killed her parents and committed suicide after he realized what he had done. After you assist his spirit, he is received by the aliens; however, rather than being sent to paradise, he is sent to another unpleasant place.
Another ghost is Margaret, whose husband is overseas fighting in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. She expects him to come home the next day and has baked a "Welcome Home" cake for him. However, she receives a message saying that her husband has been killed. She commits suicide. After you assist her spirit, she joins her husband's spirit in the afterlife.
The final ghost is Edwin, a child who was sledding when he ended up on the frozen pond. The ice broke and he was trapped beneath it and drowned. You reunite him with his teddy bear and clown doll in Edwin's underwater castle.
After the three ghosts are freed, you help Roxy by doing some programming with her computer, which tells you to place the AMBER on her head then leave the area quickly. After doing so, you stand a safe distance from the garage which apparently explodes. Roxy emerges from the flames seemingly unscathed and unaware of all the events that took place. She thanks you and explains the algorithm
Algorithm
In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm is an effective method expressed as a finite list of well-defined instructions for calculating a function. Algorithms are used for calculation, data processing, and automated reasoning...
s for AMBER probably need tweaking (hence the explosion); she asks if everything is all right in the house. Roxy excitedly explains the results of these tests of AMBER should be sent to the lab very soon. In the final moments of the game, Roxy asks, "Where'd you park your car?"
Cast
- Emily Andress as Margaret
- Susan Wimmer as the voice of Margaret
- Lauren Andress as the voice of Edwin
- Matt Andress as Edwin
- Michael Brocki as Brice
- Sandi Fix as Roxy
- Greg Purdy as the voice of Chippy
- Tommi Swinson as Mandy
- Brendan Underhill as Richard
Reception
The game was not a commercial success as it was an independent project and was not released by a major company. However, around the time of release, the game received moderate to favorable reviews from critics such as GameSpotGameSpot
GameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1, 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which...
. In April 1997, when the game was reviewed in Computer Gaming World
Computer Gaming World
Computer Gaming World was a computer game magazine founded in 1981 by Russell Sipe as a bimonthly publication. Early issues were typically 40-50 pages in length, written in a newsletter style, including submissions by game designers such as Joel Billings , Dan Bunten , and Chris Crawford...
, it received four stars. Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
also gave a positive review in their November 1996 issue.
In later years, the game received praise from several online reviewers and currently has a cult following
Cult following
A cult following is a group of fans who are highly dedicated to a specific area of pop culture. A film, book, band, or video game, among other things, will be said to have a cult following when it has a small but very passionate fan base...
. The game was not without its criticism however, many of the critics and players felt that the game was not long enough and that the conclusion was anticlimactic.
Awards
- Software Publishers AssociationSoftware and Information Industry AssociationThe Software & Information Industry Association is a United States based software trade association. The organization lobbies United States policy makers as well as conducting surveys and research and many conferences and webcasts....
: Excellence In Software Codie Award Finalist—Best Debut of the Year - MacworldMacworldMacworld is a web site and monthly computer magazine dedicated to Apple Macintosh products. It is published by Mac Publishing, which is headquartered in San Francisco, California...
, January 1997: Game Hall of Fame—Best Adventure Game of the Year - HIDEHideHide or hides may refer to:* Hiding, concealment* Hide , Japanese musician from the band X Japan* Hide , the cured skin of an animal* Hide, pseudonym of Yoshimi, guitarist of the band Funta...
(Human Interface Design Excellence) Award Finalist—Third Place, for Most Elegant Interface - Computer GamesPersonal computer gameA PC game, also known as a computer game, is a video game played on a personal computer, rather than on a video game console or arcade machine...
Strategy Plus February 1997: Stamp of Approval - MACup Magazine, February 1997: Game of the Month