Rendezvous with Rama (video game)

Rendezvous with Rama is a computer game of the U.S. company Telarium (formerly Trillium ). Built in 1984, it belongs to the genre of the text adventure with graphics ( Interactive Fiction with Graphics) and based on the novel Rendezvous with Rama by the writer Arthur C. Clarke.

Action

The sci-fi adventure is set in the 22nd century. The player is commander of the spaceship Endeavour. Its mission is to explore an alien spaceship (named after the Hindu god Rama ) as it appears in the solar system and is approaching Earth. Minor characters of the game are three crew members of the Endeavour and four organic, ape-like robot ( simps ). When exploring the alien spaceship, the player is accompanied by the Simp Goldie.

Gameplay

The control of the Adventures on the keyboard. The games commands are entered via a text parser that can process in addition to individual English words and complex sentences. For the solution of the game there is a time limit.

Development and production details

The game has a two-dimensional graphics, a theme song and sound effects. It was implemented for the platforms C 64, DOS, MSX 2 and Apple II. The port for MSX2 systems is a translation provided into Spanish ( " Cita con Rama " ) and with new illustrations.

The adventure based on the novel Rendezvous with Rama ( publisher Harcourt, 1972), the writer Arthur C. Clarke. Clarke wrote this for the adventure of a different book, new ending. Responsible development of Byron Preiss Byron Preiss and his company Video Productions was responsible. Since Clarke was living in Sri Lanka, the cooperation between him and the developer Ronald Martinez was - apart from two meetings with authors - mainly by e -mail and phone, as Byron Preiss described ( "In the course of working on the game, he would Oft send us messages on the computer did someone would call up and dictate "). The electronic delivery of manuscripts was not uncommon for Clarke in the early 1980s; so he had sent also book manuscripts from Sri Lanka by e-mail via satellite to his publisher. For the design of the Alien Raumschschiffes in Rendezvous with Rama architects were consulted.

Reception

In the 1980s, the complexity of the plot and the various opportunities for dialogue with the other game characters were highlighted in the review of a computer games magazine.

A study conducted in 2005, the Arthur C. Clarke developed game in a series with other literature related Adventures of Telarium company that focused on narrative elements.