Vohaul's
Mine - Basic Plot
What
would happen if Roger Wilco made it to the mines instead of getting
stranded on Labion? You will
have to make your may out of the mines, and to defeat Vohaul
as well!
Vohaul's
Mine - Demo Trailer
A
demo trailer is available here (284
KB).
Vohaul's
Mine - News February 2005
 What
if the hoovercraft that took Roger to the Orium Mines didn't
run out of fuel? Fanproject "Vohaul's Mines" has just
opened their new
website and has released a trailer. The trailer shows the
basic plot (which is based upon a
fanfictional story I wrote for  )
and shows the general look and feel of the actual game.
After
seeing this trailer, what conclusions can we make? I think a
whole lot. My first impression is positive. I caught my 21-year-old-self
feeling rather excited upon seeying the first original screen
the team made. The graphics are very decent and I was glad to
notice few graphics and animations taken from the original games.
Some screens from The
Lost Chapter and Replicated were
taken from the original games and modified a bit. No challenge
there. Let's hope Vohaul's Mines chooses to use hand-made backgrounds
rather than plundering the original sourcecode of early Space
Quest games. Vonster D Monster, designer of The Lost Chapter,
is doing part-time work for the team, thus making his huge experience
available to the Vohaul's Mines team. This alone should give
the project a headstart in programming and in artwork. The team
entrusted me with some early in-game screenshots and I was very
impressed. Sadly, I'm not allowed to share those pictures with
you.
Yet
despite all this praise, it is clear when looking at the trailer
that this project hasn't gone through - what I like to call -
its "professionalization phase" yet. A phase all fanprojects
must go through one time or another. It is clear that this fanproject
has potential, no denying that, but it shares flaws from TLC.
The backgrounds are missing detail and atmosphere; two very important
elements that make scenes realistic and emersive. Now they are
just that: pretty pictures but without the SQ soul. You probably
ask yourself how it's possible to make 16 colour low resolution
graphics emmersive? Well, can you remember how Scott and Mark
achieved this? By creating an old shoe box diorama-like view.
Vohaul's Mines clearly misses this.
My
second point of critic is the use of texts and dialogue in the
trailer. It comes close to being a pain. Not everything needs
words to explain what's happening. For instance, we can all see
the Apeman reaching down the counter but why do we need the text
that follows? It's as if the designers are scared their audience
will miss things. With over-doing the text bit, they create exactly
the opposite of what I think they're trying to do: Be clear and
understanble. The original Space Quest games, and any other early
Sierra adventure for that matter, doesn't have all that much
text. It can be said the project clearly misses somebody who's
good with the ol' fashion pen. The texts are straight forward,
dry, without humor and full with grammar mistakes. I know I'm
being rather strict here. We must not forget we're seeying a
very early look of the game, but that shouldn't keep the team
from striving for perfection. Text and dialogue is what made
the old Sierra games stand out. If there are any mistakes in
the texts, people will most certainly judge the game for it.
I therefore advice the team to look into this matter more closely
before they release the actual game.
Is
it fair to conclude THAT much from the trailer? It might sound
to you like I'm axing this project. But I'm not. I think this
project has truck loads of potential. It seems like they're avoiding
the typical fangame route. Which is a good thing. They're not
doing a new SQ. No, they're doing an alternative SQ
which will start and end exactly the same as the original game
thus not being an obsctruction to the SQ timeline. It takes true
talent to be able to tackle a fancreation like that.
What
if the hoovercraft that took Roger to the mines didn't crash?
Coming as soon as possible.
__ |
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