RAMA
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 was released in
1984 by
Tellurium and exported 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. 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 robot which will comment and give descriptions of the surrounding objects or events.
Four years ago, a gigantic cylindrical object entered the
solar system. The
International Space Agency (ISA) named it
Rama and sent an expendition to investigate and find its purpose and origins. They soon discover that Rama is a hollow,
rotating cylinder with enormous cities, populated by other alien species that have been collected during its travels: Myrmicats (never seen in the game), Avians, Octospiders. There are also 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 logicially 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's 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 unfortunately was never completed.
Many of the characters the player will meet first appeared in
Rama II. There are also some characters which are never met, but are only referenced:
* Shigeru Takagishi (Scientist)
* David Brown (Mission Commander)
* Francesca Sabatini (Video Journalist)
* Otto Heilmann (Chief Security Officer)
* Michael O'Toole (Codemaster)
* Richard Wakefield (Chief Engineer)
* Reggie Wilson (Print Journalist)
* Irina Turgenyev (Career Cosmonaut)
* Nicole des Jardins (Medical Officer)
* Hiro Yamanaka (Medical Officer)
* Janos Tabori (IBI Agent)
* Valeriy Borzov (IBI Agent; Deceased before the game and replaced by the
player character)
Characters are played by live actors (such as
Tiffany Helm), 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's environments are designed consistently to the descriptions of the books. Rama is a huge, featurless cylinder of 50 km length and 20 km height. Rama's length is ran by 3 huge beams that produce light and create an atificial day-night cycle. The game begins at night but becomes day soon after.
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. Built in the centre of the cylinder's rotation, the Hub has no gravity in the book, but this was overlooked in the game because navigation would be awkward.
An arrow in the lower part of the interface, points towards the 'north' so that the player has a better orientation while exploring. 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 divides Rama into northern and southern hemicylinders and during 'winter' it is 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 northern 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.
See also
Rama (spacecraft) for a discussion on the book version of Rama.
The game supports
DOS,
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-ROMs, 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).
*
Rama in
imdb.com
