Trespasser: Jurassic Park article by Al Giovetti

 

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By Al Giovetti
Price:$50
Genre:Action (An interactive, 3-D action/adventure, with lifelike AI, physics-based engine, puzzle solving.)
Release:November 1998 (originally Fall, 1997)
Developer:
Lead Artist: Terry Izumi

Artificial Intelligence: Andrew Grant

Sound effects: Brady Bell and SounDelux

Physics Programmer: Seamus Blackley

Executive Producer: Seamus Blackley

Associate Producer: Brady Bell

Game Design: Austin Grossman

Developer: Dreamworks' Andrew Grant

Publisher: Dreamworks

Programmer:
Producer:
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Phone: 425-635-7134
Website: www.dreamworksgames.com, www.trespasser.com
Requirements:Pentium 166 MHz, 32 MB of RAM, 120 MB of hard disk space, 4X CD-ROM drive, Recommended: 64 MB RAM, 266 MHz Pentium II


Trespasser: Jurassic Park

by Al Giovetti

History


History: Jurassic Park, a movie by Steven Spielberg with the story by renowned writer Michael Crichton, was released to theaters and it broke sales records. A second movie, a sequel to Jurassic Park called Lost World, will release this summer. Tresspasser follows after the plot of the second movie, while Jurassic Park: The Lost World computer game, a second computer game planned for release soon, will be based upon the plot of the movie.

Seamus Blackley, who was the resident physics wizard at Looking Glass, is now working on the game Tresspasser, which is a sequel to the second movie. Seamus programmed the physics engine of Flight Unlimited and came up with the physics for some of the other games by Looking Glass.

Company Line

Company line: Steven Spielberg calls this "The Digital Sequel to the movie The Lost World."

You don't belong here. This isn't your world. It belongs to ancient 5-ton predators who move silently through lush jungle, an elder race who ruled this world long before your race came about. That's not fantasy, it's hard science. And it belongs to the enigmatic man whose iron will brought it into being - your adversary, your companion, your ultimate destination. Trespasser is the next generation in adventure. This is not what you have seen before. Simply put: we at Dreamworks Interactive have always had fantasies of what an adventure should be like, and we have done our best to create that game.

This is a complex world of real time and real physics. No dreary, repetitive combats. No standard puzzles. In a simulation where every object and creature is a physically modeled entity, you will learn to survive by improvisation, daring, and sheer will. Inside your computer you will scale towering cliffs and plunge into the darkest jungles. You will penetrate silent, hidden groves, and explore vistas of stunning beauty. You will reach a forbidden place, the origin of the greatest mystery in the modern world.

Consider yourself warned....

Game Play

Game play: Every object in the game is given a weight, height, material, durability, and other attributes like in a role playing game, but unfortunately, the statistics nuts will not get to view these things, just experience their effects. Each living object will have other statistics that relate to fear, love, anger, curiosity, hunger, thirst, fatigue, pain, and solidity which will govern the living objects actions.

A special physics engine will report on the speed, mass, force of collisions, location, density, objects involved and other factors that will dictate what the program does next. This engine can communicate with the sound engine to produce the appropriate sound in the correct location.

Doors can be smashed or opened with gile and cunning. You can smash windows, dig traps, and do all kinds of things that you can in the real world. The designers will have to execute their game carefully. Many realistic games in the past have been too free form for gamers, who need direction in order to complete quests and progress in the game.

Plot

Plot: After the events of the Jurassic Park movie are concluded, site A Jurassic Park is destroyed. Hammond's journal reveals that there is a second location for Jurassic Park, called site B, which is lost since the journal does not give the location of site B.

A plane crash lands on the island off the coast of Costa Rica, a single passenger named Anne survives. In order to survive, Anne must find her way out of the park, traverse deadly terrain, stalk dinosaurs. Anne uses sticks, rocks and at last finds a shotgun.

Graphics

Graphics: The artwork of Terry Izumi, who used to work at the Disney Imagneering group that makes the Disney rides and visuals, put his mark on the graphics which also have an ultra realistic non-polygon feel and look.

Animation

Animation: The dinosaurs were constructed by making a computer skeletal model, attaching muscle to the model, giving the skeleton and muscle characteristics similar to the real things, stretching an artificial skin over the muscle. As a result the creatures look, act and move in a real believable manner. Polygons need not apply to this digital film.

Voice Actors

Lord Richard Attenborough appears as John Hammond in the flashbacks and journal entries. Minnie Driver appears as the heroine Anne.

Music Score

Sound Effects

Sound effects: Too often neglected in games, sound will be getting the attention it deserves in Trespasser. SoundDelux, who have worked on Braveheart and True Lies, will be putting full foley sound effects into the game. Foley sound effects are performed by Foley trained sound persons, who use devices to get sounds that are unique to that movie. These Foley experts are part artist, part musician and part inventor. They construct doors with squeaky hinges to mimic the opening and closing of them. They actually walk in gravel to simlate the actor doing the same. A saw or piece of sheet metal is shaken to give the sound of thunder.

Three dimensional sound is the most up to date with AEX and A3D.

Utilities

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Journalists

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References

Johnny L. Wilson, Computer Gaming World, issue 152, March, 1997, pg. 54 - 56.
Steve Bauman, Computer Games, issue 74, March, 1997, pg. 18.
Game Center Preview
Gamesmania Trespasser Web Site
Game Spot Trespasser Site
Doug Lombardi, Trespasser Web Site
Game Plex Tresspasser Web Site
Trespasser Strategy Guide
Alex Sharky Ross Preview
Amer "Mossad" Ajami, Sharkey Extreme, November, 1998, 3.5/5 (70%) Andrew S. Bub, Game Power

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