RAMA
Encyclopedia
Rama is a first-person adventure game
developed and published by Sierra Entertainment
in 1996. The game is based on Arthur C. Clarke
's books Rendezvous with Rama
and Rama II and supports both DOS
and Windows
95. It is the second Rama game to be produced. Earlier, a text adventure with low-resolution semi-static view graphics for every visited location was released in 1984 by Telarium (a sub-brand of Spinnaker Software
, previously called Trillium
until forced by a lawsuit to change the name) and ported to systems such as the Apple II
and Commodore 64
.
As in many Myst
-like adventure games, the player is an AFGNCAAP character; an astronaut who is assigned to replace the late Valeriy Borzov who died during the mission under mysterious conditions, as the introduction explains. Much of the gameplay is done with the "wristcomp", a device that is used for communication with other characters and mapping or transport to other locations. The player also has in possession a small android based on Puck
which will comment and give descriptions of the surrounding objects or events (therefore used as an interface element for examining objects).
. The International Space Agency (ISA) named it Rama
and sent an expedition named 'Newton Team' to investigate and find its purpose and origins. They soon discovered that Rama is a hollow, rotating cylinder
with enormous cities, populated by other alien species that have been collected during its travels: Myrmicats (seen in images but never encountered in the game), Avians, Octospiders. The 'native' beings of Rama are the Biots (biological robots) constructed by the aliens who built Rama, and are a part of it.
The player at first must investigate the area known as "the Plains" and find items that will help solve the logical/mathematical puzzles. Two Raman cities, nicknamed "London" and "Bangkok" by the expedition crew, will be visited in order to learn more about the species that accompany the astronauts. To proceed, the player must solve "complete with the shape which is logically missing" puzzles as well as mathematic exercises in the octal
and hexadecimal
number systems.
After the Plains have been explored (actually when the player has managed to reach and obtain all the useful inventory items), Rama changes towards an impact course with Earth
and a special team inside the expedition (originally consisting of Heilmann, Borzov and O'Toole) proceeds to the "Project Trinity" and arms a bomb network to destroy Rama and its inhabitants. The player is then free to explore the island within the Cylindrical Sea, nicknamed "New York", that is the location for one of the bombs. While there, the player learns that Rama's course has diverted away from Earth and is no longer a risk, but the bombs have already been armed to explode in six hours. Unfortunately, O'Toole who knows the code to disarm it, is lost, and during the six in-game hours, the player has to interpret the code and find the bomb in order to disarm it.
The epilogue implies a sequel, which was already scheduled for production, but was never completed.
Characters are played by live actors, each with their own behaviour towards the player. Although this largely doesn't affect gameplay, it enhances the realistic feeling. There are several hints throughout the game about the characters' relations that point to a secondary backplot.
' s environments are designed consistently to the descriptions of the books. Rama is a huge, featureless cylinder of 50 km length and 20 km height. Rama's length is spanned by 3 huge beams that produce light and create an artificial day-night cycle. The game begins at night but becomes day soon after.
Rama is divided in 'Northern' and 'Southern' hemicylinders, divided by the Cylindrical Sea which during 'winter' it is frozen.
An arrow in the lower part of the interface, points towards the Raman 'north', which is the opposite end of the cylinder, so that the player has a better orientation while exploring.
The 'entrance', where the ISA installs the Hub with supplies, lockers and living quarters, is the southern 'pole' which contains the airlock and climate controls. The game starts there. Built in the centre of the cylinder's rotation according to the book, the Hub should have no gravity, but in the game this details is neglected, because navigation would be awkward without gravity.
The South is occupied by the Plains that feature hills and cities, named after Earth places. In the game, the player will visit several places, but of the cities, only Bangkok (actually a museum for each of the species) and London. The player travels in the Plains by the means of a map, projected by his wrist communication device.
The Plains are connected to the Cylindrical Sea which in the game, is seen frozen. The Sea is occupied by a huge island of enormous structures, for that reason named New York. There, there are three 'plazas' for each of the species, the Avians and Myrmicats, the Octospiders, and the Humans.
The opposite part, which contains the propulsion mechanisms according to the books, is never visited in the game. Cities like Rome, Paris, Moscow mentioned in the books are never brought into consideration.
, Windows
, and Macintosh
platforms and was created using version three of the SCI
game engine
. As was usual in that time, the graphics are combination of 3D
rendered scenery and live-action actors. Although it only supports 256 colours, the filmed videos are still of exceptionally high quality.
The game comes on two CD-ROM
s, with a third reserved for videos. The first part of the videos show the prologue, concerning the reaction on Earth when Rama was discovered in a form of a journalist show, and hosts interviews of the characters that will be seen later in the game. The other features a brief interview with Arthur C. Clarke
and Gentry Lee
.
Clarke himself appears in some scenes of the game, like when the player dies, and in the epilogue, gives advice to the player. He is implemented into the scenery and humorously interacts with it (like when he provokes a Biot in a fight).
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,...
developed and published by Sierra Entertainment
Sierra Entertainment
Sierra Entertainment Inc. was an American video-game developer and publisher founded in 1979 as On-Line Systems by Ken and Roberta Williams...
in 1996. The game is based on Arthur C. Clarke
Arthur C. Clarke
Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, CBE, FRAS was a British science fiction author, inventor, and futurist, famous for his short stories and novels, among them 2001: A Space Odyssey, and as a host and commentator in the British television series Mysterious World. For many years, Robert A. Heinlein,...
's books Rendezvous with Rama
Rendezvous with Rama
Rendezvous with Rama is a novel by Arthur C. Clarke first published in 1972. Set in the 22nd century, the story involves a cylindrical alien starship that enters Earth's solar system...
and Rama II and supports both DOS
DOS
DOS, short for "Disk Operating System", is an acronym for several closely related operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions 95, 98, and Millennium Edition.Related...
and Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
95. It is the second Rama game to be produced. Earlier, a text adventure with low-resolution semi-static view graphics for every visited location was released in 1984 by Telarium (a sub-brand of Spinnaker Software
Spinnaker Software
Spinnaker Software was a 1982 founded software company known primarily for its line of non-curriculum based educational software, which was a major seller during the 1980s. It was founded by chairman Bill Bowman and president C. David Seuss....
, previously called Trillium
Trillium
Trillium is a genus of about 40–50 species of spring ephemeral perennials, native to temperate regions of North America and Asia....
until forced by a lawsuit to change the name) and ported to systems such as the Apple II
Apple II
The Apple II is an 8-bit home computer, one of the first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products, designed primarily by Steve Wozniak, manufactured by Apple Computer and introduced in 1977...
and Commodore 64
Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...
.
As in many 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...
-like adventure games, the player is an AFGNCAAP character; an astronaut who is assigned to replace the late Valeriy Borzov who died during the mission under mysterious conditions, as the introduction explains. Much of the gameplay is done with the "wristcomp", a device that is used for communication with other characters and mapping or transport to other locations. The player also has in possession a small android based on Puck
Puck
-Fictional characters:* Puck , a folklore character* Puck , a Shakespeare character** Puck, a Faeries character** Puck, a Gargoyles character** Puck, a Puck of Pook's Hill character...
which will comment and give descriptions of the surrounding objects or events (therefore used as an interface element for examining objects).
Plot
Four years ago, a gigantic cylindrical object entered the solar systemSolar System
The Solar System consists of the Sun and the astronomical objects gravitationally bound in orbit around it, all of which formed from the collapse of a giant molecular cloud approximately 4.6 billion years ago. The vast majority of the system's mass is in the Sun...
. The International Space Agency (ISA) named it Rama
Rama (spacecraft)
Rama is a fictional mysterious extraterrestrial vessel that is the subject and setting of the science fiction novel Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke, and the later sequel trilogy by Clarke and Gentry Lee: Rama II, Garden of Rama, and Rama Revealed. It exists in a fictional future timeline...
and sent an expedition named 'Newton Team' to investigate and find its purpose and origins. They soon discovered that Rama is a hollow, rotating cylinder
Cylinder (geometry)
A cylinder is one of the most basic curvilinear geometric shapes, the surface formed by the points at a fixed distance from a given line segment, the axis of the cylinder. The solid enclosed by this surface and by two planes perpendicular to the axis is also called a cylinder...
with enormous cities, populated by other alien species that have been collected during its travels: Myrmicats (seen in images but never encountered in the game), Avians, Octospiders. The 'native' beings of Rama are the Biots (biological robots) constructed by the aliens who built Rama, and are a part of it.
The player at first must investigate the area known as "the Plains" and find items that will help solve the logical/mathematical puzzles. Two Raman cities, nicknamed "London" and "Bangkok" by the expedition crew, will be visited in order to learn more about the species that accompany the astronauts. To proceed, the player must solve "complete with the shape which is logically missing" puzzles as well as mathematic exercises in the octal
Octal
The octal numeral system, or oct for short, is the base-8 number system, and uses the digits 0 to 7. Numerals can be made from binary numerals by grouping consecutive binary digits into groups of three...
and hexadecimal
Hexadecimal
In mathematics and computer science, hexadecimal is a positional numeral system with a radix, or base, of 16. It uses sixteen distinct symbols, most often the symbols 0–9 to represent values zero to nine, and A, B, C, D, E, F to represent values ten to fifteen...
number systems.
After the Plains have been explored (actually when the player has managed to reach and obtain all the useful inventory items), Rama changes towards an impact course with Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
and a special team inside the expedition (originally consisting of Heilmann, Borzov and O'Toole) proceeds to the "Project Trinity" and arms a bomb network to destroy Rama and its inhabitants. The player is then free to explore the island within the Cylindrical Sea, nicknamed "New York", that is the location for one of the bombs. While there, the player learns that Rama's course has diverted away from Earth and is no longer a risk, but the bombs have already been armed to explode in six hours. Unfortunately, O'Toole who knows the code to disarm it, is lost, and during the six in-game hours, the player has to interpret the code and find the bomb in order to disarm it.
The epilogue implies a sequel, which was already scheduled for production, but was never completed.
Characters
Many of the characters the player will meet first appeared in Rama II. There are also some characters who are never met but are referred to elsewhere in the game:- Shigeru Takagishi (Scientist)
- David Brown (Mission Commander)
- Francesca Sabatini (Video Journalist) (played by Tiffany HelmTiffany HelmTiffany Helm is an American film and television actress. Her best known role was in the 1985 horror film Friday the 13th: A New Beginning as Violet...
) - Otto Heilmann (Chief Security Officer)
- Michael O'Toole (Codemaster)
- Richard Wakefield (Chief Engineer)
- Reggie Wilson (Print Journalist)
- Irina Turgenyev (Career Cosmonaut) (Voiced by Sharon MannSharon MannSharon Mann is a voice actress whose work includes several video games such as Dark Earth , Syberia , Egyptian Prophecy: Fate of Ramses , and Indigo Prophecy . She is also the voice of Jeremie Belpois and Aelita on the television series Code Lyoko. Furthermore, she is the voice of Gina in the PC...
) - Nicole des JardinsNicole des Jardins WakefieldNicole des Jardins Wakefield is a fictional character and the central protagonist of the three sequels to Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke and Gentry Lee. She is an African-European woman, of heritage from both France and the Ivory Coast...
(Medical Officer) (played by Amy HunterAmy HunterAmy Hunter is an American actress and model. She has had roles on a number of television series and daytime soaps, co-hosted The Comedy Channel's Night After Night, and went on location for ESPN's Women in Sports. Amy was a special guest host on Soul Train, the weekly series where she met her...
) - Hiro Yamanaka (Medical Officer)
- Janos Tabori (IBI Agent)
- Valeriy Borzov (IBI Agent; Deceased before the game and replaced by the player characterPlayer characterA player character or playable character is a character in a video game or role playing game who is controlled or controllable by a player, and is typically a protagonist of the story told in the course of the game. A player character is a persona of the player who controls it. Player characters...
)
Characters are played by live actors, each with their own behaviour towards the player. Although this largely doesn't affect gameplay, it enhances the realistic feeling. There are several hints throughout the game about the characters' relations that point to a secondary backplot.
Rama geography
RamaRama is divided in 'Northern' and 'Southern' hemicylinders, divided by the Cylindrical Sea which during 'winter' it is frozen.
An arrow in the lower part of the interface, points towards the Raman 'north', which is the opposite end of the cylinder, so that the player has a better orientation while exploring.
The 'entrance', where the ISA installs the Hub with supplies, lockers and living quarters, is the southern 'pole' which contains the airlock and climate controls. The game starts there. Built in the centre of the cylinder's rotation according to the book, the Hub should have no gravity, but in the game this details is neglected, because navigation would be awkward without gravity.
The South is occupied by the Plains that feature hills and cities, named after Earth places. In the game, the player will visit several places, but of the cities, only Bangkok (actually a museum for each of the species) and London. The player travels in the Plains by the means of a map, projected by his wrist communication device.
The Plains are connected to the Cylindrical Sea which in the game, is seen frozen. The Sea is occupied by a huge island of enormous structures, for that reason named New York. There, there are three 'plazas' for each of the species, the Avians and Myrmicats, the Octospiders, and the Humans.
The opposite part, which contains the propulsion mechanisms according to the books, is never visited in the game. Cities like Rome, Paris, Moscow mentioned in the books are never brought into consideration.
Technical information
The game supports DOSDOS
DOS, short for "Disk Operating System", is an acronym for several closely related operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions 95, 98, and Millennium Edition.Related...
, Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
, and Macintosh
Mac OS
Mac OS is a series of graphical user interface-based operating systems developed by Apple Inc. for their Macintosh line of computer systems. The Macintosh user experience is credited with popularizing the graphical user interface...
platforms and was created using version three of the SCI
Sierra's Creative Interpreter
Sierra's Creative Interpreter is the scripting language created by Jeff Stephenson of Sierra On-Line for its adventure games after the older AGI, and the runtime environment for such adventure games....
game engine
Game engine
A game engine is a system designed for the creation and development of video games. There are many game engines that are designed to work on video game consoles and personal computers...
. As was usual in that time, the graphics are combination of 3D
3D computer graphics
3D computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data that is stored in the computer for the purposes of performing calculations and rendering 2D images...
rendered scenery and live-action actors. Although it only supports 256 colours, the filmed videos are still of exceptionally high quality.
The game comes on two CD-ROM
CD-ROM
A CD-ROM is a pre-pressed compact disc that contains data accessible to, but not writable by, a computer for data storage and music playback. The 1985 “Yellow Book” standard developed by Sony and Philips adapted the format to hold any form of binary data....
s, with a third reserved for videos. The first part of the videos show the prologue, concerning the reaction on Earth when Rama was discovered in a form of a journalist show, and hosts interviews of the characters that will be seen later in the game. The other features a brief interview with Arthur C. Clarke
Arthur C. Clarke
Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, CBE, FRAS was a British science fiction author, inventor, and futurist, famous for his short stories and novels, among them 2001: A Space Odyssey, and as a host and commentator in the British television series Mysterious World. For many years, Robert A. Heinlein,...
and Gentry Lee
Gentry Lee
Bert Gentry Lee is the chief engineer for the Planetary Flight Systems Directorate at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and a science fiction writer. As an author he is best known for co-writing, with Arthur C. Clarke, the books Cradle in 1989, Rama II in 1989, The Garden of Rama in 1991 and Rama...
.
Clarke himself appears in some scenes of the game, like when the player dies, and in the epilogue, gives advice to the player. He is implemented into the scenery and humorously interacts with it (like when he provokes a Biot in a fight).