The Feeble Files
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| The Feeble Files | |
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| Developer(s) | Adventure Soft |
| Publisher(s) | Adventure Soft |
| Release date(s) | 1997 |
| Genre(s) | Adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | Teen 13+ |
| Platform(s) | Amiga, Mac, Windows, others with ScummVM |
| Media | 4 × CD / 2 x CD |
The Feeble Files is an adventure game about the adventures of a rather ‘feeble’ alien called Feeble. The game is a science fiction comedy, with a similar style of British humour to that of Adventure Soft’s previous games, the Simon the Sorcerer series.
It was created and released in the UK in 1997 by Adventure Soft. Epic-Interactive created a Mac version in 2001 and a Amiga verison is 2002 that were released in Europe. In 2002 the Mac version was released in the U.S..
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[edit] Presentation
- Graphics
- The game is presented in pre-rendered 2D graphics at much a higher resolution than the Simon the Sorcerer games series. However, given the five year gap between its original UK release and the US release there have been several claims that it looks dated.
- Voice Acting
- To bring Feeble’s world to life several famous actors were recruited to provide the voices. Feeble was voiced by Robert Llewellyn from the BBC comedy Red Dwarf, and Blake's 7’s Peter Tuddenham provides the voice for the Oracle.
- Interaction
- For interaction the game uses a point-and-click navigation system synonymous with adventure games. The player is in control of the main character, Feeble, and must solve various puzzles to advance through the game and complete his quest.
- At one point during the game the player must win several arcade games in order to advance, however these games use completely different gameplay methods and many people become stuck. In the end Adventure Soft released a saved game just after the arcade section to allow people to carry on playing.
- The story and puzzles within the game are all of a linear nature.
[edit] The Game World
The world of The Feeble Files is very detailed and contains large amounts of information and dialogue that is superfluous to the plot.
- Ministry of Galactic Uncertainty
- Feeble works for Ministry of Galactic Uncertainty (Crop Circle Division). It is Feeble’s job to fly to undeveloped planets, such as Earth, and create crop circles to ensure that lesser species develop at an acceptable rate.
- OmniBrain
- The OmniBrain is in charge. He is the governing power of the galaxy, controlling everything and seeing everything.
- The game states “he considers all life forms everywhere to be his citizens, and he loves them and cares for them in the way that is best for them, and wants them all to be happy. Praise be to the OmniBrain!"
- This fine line between a god and dictatorship is explored at many points throughout the game. One example of this is the Happy Bots who patrol the city to ensure that everyone is happy. However, they achieve this in a rather unorthodox way, by killing anyone who is sad.
- Directives
- Directives are rules created by the OmniBrain to make the world better; there are over a million of them. As the game progresses a record is kept of all the rules that you have broken.
[edit] Using ScummVM
All versions of the game are fully compatible with ScummVM since version 0.9.1. Although to play the Windows version you have to reencode Smacker cutscenes with use of RAD Game Tools and ScummVM Tools package. This process may take days.
The Windows versions and later Mac versions are stored within an installer. The Windows Installshield setup can be extracted with i5comp/i6comp. The Mac installer must be run under OSX as nothing can currently extract the contents of VISE. Orange of the SynCE linux suite may one day be able to do it.
[edit] Ports
Windows 4CD:
- Original relase of game.
Windows 2CD:
- Reduced video quality of cutscenes, compared to original release.
- Removed several cutscenes (Fmain, Mix_Snip1, Mix_Snip2, Mix_Snip3, Mix_Snip4, Mix_Snip5, Mix_Snip6, Mix_Snip7, Mix_Snip8) of docking controller and pilot arguing at Metro Prime.
Amiga and Mac:
- Reduced audio and video quality of cutscenes, compared to original release. (Reduced video resolution in Amiga version too)
- Removed several cutscenes (Fmain, Mix_Snip1, Mix_Snip2, Mix_Snip3, Mix_Snip4, Mix_Snip5, Mix_Snip6, Mix_Snip7, Mix_Snip8) of docking controller and pilot arguing at Metro Prime.
- Removed the background chatter between docking controller and pilot at Metro Prime.
- Removed the OmniTV cutscenes (Charisma, Nextdoor, Omnitoy, Qtime), which are displayed on television in the prison of Cygnus Alpha.
- Removed the epilogue cutscene (WhoWhat).
Audio quality and video resolution of cutscenes:
Windows: 22050Hz PCM audio; 640x480 video (Smacker).
Mac: 11025Hz ADPCM audio; 640x480 video (dxa).
Amiga: 11025Hz PCM audio; 384x280 video (dxa).
