Deja Vu: a Nightmare Comes True

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This article is about the graphical adventure game in the MacVenture series. Déja Vù is also the title of an unrelated text adventure game by Graham Nelson and a space-themed ZX Spectrum game by Andrew Daly.

Deja Vu

Developer(s)	ICOM Simulations, Inc.
Publisher(s)	MindScape
Engine	MacVenture
Release date(s)	1985 (Mac) 1987 (DOS) 1990 (NES)
Genre(s)	Adventure game
Mode(s)	Single player
Platform(s)	Commodore Amiga Apple IIGS Atari ST Commodore 64 Game Boy Color Apple Macintosh NES MS-DOS PocketPC Microsoft Windows
Media	Two 3,5" 400k floppies (Mac)
Input	Mouse/Keyboard Joystick (C64)

Deja Vu: A Nightmare Comes True is a "point-and-click" adventure game set in the world of 1940s hard-boiled detective novels and movies. It was the first in the MacVenture series released on the Macintosh in 1985, and later ported to several other systems.

1 Gameplay
2 Technology
3 Trivia
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Gameplay

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The game takes place in Chicago during December 1941, shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The game character is Theodore 'Ace' Harding, a retired boxer who is working as a private eye.

The player awakes one morning in a bathroom stall, unable to remember who he is. The bathroom stall turns out to belong to Joe's Bar: a dead man is found in an office and Ace is about to be framed for the murder. There are some clues around as to who the murdered man is and to the player's own identity. A strap-down chair, mysterious vials and a syringe is also found suggesting, together with a needle-mark on the player's arm, that some kind of elaborate torture or other treatment has taken place.

The streets of early 1940s Chicago is clearly an unsafe place for a man with no memory. There are muggers, an old acquaintance with a grudge, not to mention the police. Here, the player's history as a boxer is a much more valuable asset than the smoking gun picked up in the game's beginning. Using addresses found around Joe's bar, Ace is able to make taxi rides to a few locations including his own P.I. office. A story unravels of a kidnapping in which Ace has played some part but his memory lack important details.

Ace's memory and mental condition gets progressively worse but he can eventually obtain an antidote to the drug that caused the memory loss. The memory recurring flashbacks now become filled with information (of which not all is decisive to the gameplay). The police are still on his back, but with the new information the player can better value the various bits of evidence and take care of them accordingly.

This game and its sequel Deja Vu II: Lost in Las Vegas require a lot of lateral thinking. Some are based in common detective techniques, others require simple violence. They are nonetheless more logically disposed than the two other MacVentures (Uninvited and Shadowgate), since there are no supernatural events involved.

[edit] Technology

Deja Vu originated the MacVenture interface and engine that became ICOM's trademark. It was awarded SPA excellence in software awards for Best Entertainment Product and Best New World in 1986 and inspired similar point-and-click games such as Maniac Mansion from LucasArts. For more about the game engine see MacVenture.

Numerous ports were made, including versions for several home computer systems in 1987 as well as Nintendo Entertainment System in 1990. Versions of Deja Vu and its sequel with new graphics and sound were released for Microsoft Windows in the early 1990s, and later as a combined single-cartridge release for the Game Boy Color. The NES version was infamous for having a defective save system, probably due to a hardware defect.

[edit] Trivia

When the player finds the memo pad in Sternwood's house, the player also finds a ballpoint pen. This is an anachronism. Even though ballpoint pens did exist in 1941, they had not been mass produced in Europe yet, much less in the United States. However, it is possible that the pen was imported or picked up on a travel by the undoubtedly rich man who owns the mansion where it is found.

Another anachronism was how cab drivers used bulletproof windows between them and customers, and slots to collect fares. Such practices did not become commonplace until decades later.

In the doctor's office a vial is labeled "Todd Zipman", which is an amalgam of names from the MacVenture team.

Deja Vu (NES version)

Ace Harding showed up as a zombie in Uninvited. The player needs to punch his tombstone to make him appear.

In the NES port (as well as the later GameBoy Color compilation), the "syringe" becomes a bunch of "capsules". Apparently, Nintendo thought using a syringe was not very "family-safe" and decided that loading medicines into the seemingly-endless supply of capsules was a "safer" idea. However, this causes a problem in the opening text, as references to Ace having an injection mark were left in. Also, the character Sugar Shack became labeled as just "a woman" instead of "a hooker".

See also: MacVenture#NES ports

Original marketing text:

"Well, kid, you really stepped in it this time! Either you're bein' framed for a murder or you really iced the guy, but if I was you, I'd get outta town. 'Course I ain't you, and you ain't got my sense. Knowin' you, you'll try to figure it all out. Jeesh, some guys never learn. Do ya really think ya got a chance with the cops, the mob and who knows who else all after ya? Well good luck, pal. Oh by the way, did I mention that ya don't even remember who ya are? Deja Vu is a graphic/text adventure in which everything seems vaguely familiar, yet you remember nothing. Advanced Macintosh technology lets you explore your environment with a click of the mouse, but you'll still have to solve this Chandleresque mystery yourself!"