Three dimensional simulations are an integral component of Virtual Reality and are being used to help pilots, doctors and architects avoid costly mistakes, but can they help us avoid galactic destruction?
In Drew Pictures╒ upcoming entertainment product, THE IRON HELIX, the player is projected into a suspenseful exploration of space and high technology. The setting is the distant future, when ships travel beyond light speed and computers posess artificial intelligence. With weapons capable of vast destruction pointed at one another, the earth and an intelligent alien race find themselves in a state of cold war. Until something goes wrong with a new military vessel╒s on board computers during a routine maneuver... The new course guarantees disaster. In a race against time, the player, operator of a self-propelled research probe, must elude the ships' robotic guardian, correct the situation and save innocent aliens and humans from anihilation.
"The central theme of THE IRON HELIX is the irony of man╒s own invention turning against him," explains Vinny Carrella, Marketing VP for Drew Pictures. "It turns out that the real enemy is not the aliens but the natural chaos or randomness inherent within the solar system. There are many random elements in the game, elements which change the course of events. What we have developed is a cross between PacMan, Terminator and Alien."
Designed by specialists in photorealistic animations, including animator Drew Huffman and Richard Cohen, formerly Senior Technical Director for Industrial Light and Magic, the virtual environment has more than 30 different rooms and countless hallways. "We have a very rapid response time with much higher resolution images than has previously been produced for games. The navigational shell we have developed makes extensive use of the QuickTime architecture. With animation compressors and some custom code, we have created much more fluid realistic effects and motion than has ever been produced, especially from a CD player," concludes Carrella.
Scheduled for release in October of 1992, the QuickTime-based adventure game will have a suggested retail price of $99.99.
