OCS no. 1
OCS no. 2

Alternate Reality: The City

General info

Not Amiga Original

Relationships

WHDLoad

No WHDLoad installer.

Stats

6,030

Genre

Conversions

Apple II/IIGS
Apple Macintosh (Classic)
Atari 400/800/1200XL
Atari ST/E
Commodore C64/128
PC (DOS)

OCS

Version info

No
Max 1, Sim 1

Features

Hard Disk Installer

No

Compilations

Releases

Year
Name
Licence
Type
Country
Publisher
Languages
Manual Languages
Disks
Rarity
1988
Alternate Reality: The City
Commercial
Full Price
Europe
English
1
Rare
1988
Alternate Reality: The City
Commercial
Full Price
Rest of the World
English
1
Rare
1988
Alternate Reality: The City
Commercial
Full Price
Europe
English
1
Rare

Notes

[1] Original game design by Philip Price.

[2] Prequel to ALTERNATE REALITY: THE DUNGEON, which never saw an Amiga release.

[3] Initially published in Europe in 1988 by Grandslam. Later published by U.S. Gold in Europe when the sequel was released for other platforms (see Miscshot for game ads).

[4] Game included a map of "The City" (see Miscshot for map scans).


TRIVIA
:
[1] ALTERNATE REALITY: THE CITY and its sequel, ALTERNATE REALITY: THE DUNGEON were originally intended by game designer Philip Price to be combined all into one game. The split was done to provide the Datasoft programmers working on the 8-bit conversions enough time to convert the first game in time for a Christmas release.

[2] Four sequels were planned for ALTERNATE REALITY: THE CITY. Ultimately only one sequel was ever produced because Datasoft failed to pay royalties to Philip Price for designing & coding the original Atari 8-bit release. Game designer, Philip Price, in his own words explains: 'The sequels were planned from the start. I wanted an interwoven series of games that allowed multiple ways of solving the problems and that had a plethora of plots and sub-plots. I planned to allow players to directly go back and forth between the sequels, with prior games being patchable and having versions. Sadly, in the conversions, Datasoft didn't follow my technique for laying out data on the disk, and therefore the conversions would not be able to bootstrap to other games in the series. But the Atari 800 version always was ready for it. I probably should have tried to control the conversion process more. As it stands, [there is] no [way to "win" the game series]. My concept from the start was that "The City" and every sequel were to be patchable by later games in the series. One subtle patch to "The City," done in either "Wilderness," "Revelation," or "Destiny," would change the characteristics of Acrinimiril's gate. It would then become a gateway into an alternate universe; the one Acrinimiril came from. You could enter it with the proper knowledge. It would seem like you could always do this, but in technical terms it would only exist after the patch. Thus, you could win with only "The City," but only after the patch. The series itself had many possible endings. I believe in free will and wanted people to chose their destinies, not have me cram it down their throats. A person in the final game in the series would have to make some heavy choices. Should I annihilate the planet we are orbiting that is populated with aliens who had kidnapped me? Should I just return to Earth? Should I take the alien megaship I am in with me to Earth? Should I destroy it? These were all final choices in the end, each with probabilities of certain consequences occurring from those choices.' [Source: Halcyon Days: Interviews with Classic Computer and Video Game Programmers © 1997/98, 2002 by James Hague]

Conversion Notes

Based on 1985 Paradise Programming/Datasoft Atari 400/800/XL release. PC versions: CGA?, EGA

Screen info

OCS
Screenshot OCS no. 3

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Screenshot OCS no. 21

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Screenshot OCS no. 23

Screenshot OCS no. 24

Screenshot OCS no. 25

Screenshot OCS no. 26

Scan info

Box: OCS
Box scan OCS no. 1

Box scan OCS no. 2

Disk: OCS
Disk scan OCS no. 1

Misc: OCS
OCS no. 1

Map (included with game)

OCS no. 2

UK Advert [1]

OCS no. 3

UK Advert [2]

OCS no. 4

Catalogue Entry [1] [Source: Atari Mania]

OCS no. 5

Catalogue Entry [2] [Source: Atari Mania]

Manual info

OCS
OCS no. 1

Manual (English) [Source: Retro Commodore]

OCS no. 2

Amiga Reference Card (English)

OCS no. 3

Story (English)

OCS

No cheats found.

Conversion info

Apple II/IIGS
No conversion screens found.
Apple Macintosh (Classic)
No conversion screens found.
Atari 400/800/1200XL
No conversion screens found.
Atari ST/E
No conversion screens found.
Commodore C64/128
No conversion screens found.
PC (DOS)
Conversion PC (DOS)

EGA

Conversion PC (DOS)

Map info

OCS

No maps found.

MAGAZINE REVIEWS

Magazine
Issue
Rating
Reviewer
Release type
Review
Scans
ACE: Advanced Computer Entertainment
12 (Sep 1988)
749/1000
Rod Lawton
1
Amiga Computing
Vol 1 No 3 (Aug 1988)
80%
Dave Eriksson
3
Amiga Joker
Sonderheft Nr.3 - Rollenspiele
42%
Max Magenauer
1
Amiga User International
Vol 2 No 9 (Sep 1988)
7/10
Andy Moss
2
Génération 4
5 (Sep - Oct 1988)
82%
0
The Games Machine
10 (Sep 1988)
70%
1
Your Amiga
Jul 1989
71%
Gordon Hamlett
1

MAGAZINE PREVIEWS

Magazine
Issue
Rating
Reviewer
Release type
Review
Scans
No magazine previews found

OCS

Lore Score: 66%

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