Indiana Jones and His Desktop Adventures
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| Indiana Jones and His Desktop Adventures | |
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| Developer(s) | LucasArts |
| Publisher(s) | LucasArts |
| Release date(s) | 1996 PC |
| Genre(s) | Adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | America: ESRB Everyone (E) Australia: G |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows |
| Media | Floppy Disk |
Indiana Jones and his Desktop Adventures is a 1996 computer game. Desktop adventures is made to run in a windowed form on the desktop to use the least amount of memory possible and still allows the player to perform other on screen tasks.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
This game is set in 1930s Mexico with motley characters, challenging puzzles, and a huge variety of outcomes. Each game averages 30 minutes. The plot, size, and direction of each game are randomly generated at the start, with locations and items being different every time.
[edit] Controls
The game controls are incredibly simple. To control Indy the Up, Down, Left, Right arrow keys are used or by holding down the left mouse button and moving the mouse can control Indy and to shoot is the right mouse click button.
To change weapons it used the classic drag and drop system into a box between the health meter and map arrows.
The health meter turns through green, yellow, red, and black as Indy's health deteriorates.
The green arrows to the left of the health meter indicate if Indy can travel any further off this side of the screen (the arrows going grey when he can't).
The various characters that speak to Indy during the game use a simple white speech balloon to display their text which uses just as simple scrolls and close buttons on the right hand side of the balloon to view the speech.
Every World in the game also contains a map that is often the first item that needs to be found. This map shows the screen areas where puzzles are and if they have been solved or not. It can also provide clues to puzzles yet unsolved. By discovering certain special stones it is possible to fast travel across the world by clicking on these 'stones' on the map. There are many different icons for the map as well :
Dark and Light Squares - The dark square indicates a yet unexplored area of the map, a light square is an explored area, and an empty light square means there is nothing of interest in this particular area.
Red Cross - This cross is basically a "You Are Here" for Indy.
Puzzle Piece - The puzzles piece comes in two variants, un-shaded and shaded. The un-shaded ones indicate that the puzzle hasn't been solved yet and clicking on it will offer a clue of what needs to be done to solve it, the shaded puzzle piece indicates that the puzzle is "Solved!"
Shaded Circle - This is Indy's basic starting point. It is the safest point in the world as well and the centre of it.
Doorway - The big doors represent travel from one area of the map to another. By going to a square with one door you can instantly travel to the other door, possibly to reach a puzzle or your final goal.
Cross-Hair - The cross-hair is a marking for the special stones Indy can use to fast travel around the game by clicking on a different one on the map.
Hatched "Wall" - Wall isn't far off he. This basically means something is obstructing your path that you need to find a way around. Clicking on it will give you a clue how to do so. The wall will appear with a gap in it once you have solved how to get past it.
Star - This is your goal, your final test. Get to here, solve the puzzle and you finish the World ready to start a new one.
[edit] Weapons
Indy isn't totally unequipped for life in the Mexican outback. Over the course of the games he picks up several different weapons:
Whip - Where would Indy be without his whip? Probably at the bottom of the chasm at the start of Raiders but that's beside the point and this game is set before then anyway. Indy's whip is usually the first weapon you get in the game, damage-wise it's probably the least effective weapon in the game but it's still a staple of the Indiana Jones series.
Gun - With the exception of fighting the two Thugees in Temple Of Doom Indy is very rarely seen without a gun of some kind. Different kinds of guns can be picked up throughout the game and are the most effective of all the weapons for dispatching enemies.
Machete - A slightly out of place weapon for Indiana Jones (taking into account this game was made before Infernal Machine, and Emperor's Tomb) but at close range this weapon is fast and effective for getting rid of the nasty bugs, bandits and Nazis.
Bow & Arrow - Usually found on Natives or on their land this weapon is great for striking from a distance to dispatch Indy's foes.
Spear - This is more of a double weapon. At close range it has the same effect as the machete and at a distance the same as the spear. Unfortunately this doesn't mean double the damage.
[edit] Enemies
The enemies remain mostly consistent throughout the game but they range between animals and people:
Nazis - Indy's most rival foes return to try and stop him completing his quests. More often than not the Nazis will have guns and shoot Indy at close range in an enclosed area but beware larger open spaces because they can shoot from a distance as well.
Bandits - You've got Indiana Jones in Mexico, of course there are going to be bandits! These sombrero wearing bad guys are basically the same as the Nazis. Mostly carrying guns they'll shoot Indy at close range but still deal damage from a distance as well.
Natives - Often around temples there will be native hunters and warriors looking out for intruders trespassing into their sacred ground. These guys are fast which makes them hard to shoot and they wield spears that can be hard to dodge.
Snakes - "Why did it have to be snakes?" The one animal that ever brings fear to Indy, these slithery creatures are fast and can deal damage quickly if they come near you, but can be dealt with easily with a quick burst from the gun or crack from the whip.
Spiders - A little bigger than normal spiders compared to Indy on screen but don't let their size worry you. Like snakes at closer range they can deal quite a bit of damage but can be dispatched easily from afar.
Scorpions - They might not poison you with venom that slowly works your health down but they can still deal some significant damage. Like most of the "smaller" creatures in the game they can be dispatched quite easily.
Jaguars - These big cats prowl around the open desolate and jungle areas of Mexico. Unfortunately Indy is at the top of their attack list. These fast animals can be difficult to get away from and probably deal the most damage out of all of the creatures in the game when up close. The best advice if you encounter one is to hastily make some distance, turn, shoot, hastily make more distance and repeat.
[edit] Health Items
Dangerous encounters reduce health points, which can be restored with health items from the local vendor or that are found throughout the areas of Mexico:
Health Kits - Health kits can often been found in cabinets or in/under crates or boxes. These restore a whole circle of Indy's health making them the most sought after health item.
Bananas - Often high up in the trees, bananas can be found on the ground or are sold by a local vendor. They restore quite a bit of Indy's health.
Yurba Beaua - A local wild plantlife native to the Mexican area where Indy's adventure takes place, this is most often purchased from the local vendor but if you're lucky and keep your eyes sharp you may spot some lying around in the outback.
Tequila - Not exactly a health item, in fact quite the opposite, this can sometimes be found in the local bar but beware, this stuff is seriously strong and will hurt Indy if he drinks it. Keep out of reach of flames, small children and adventurers seriously low on health!
[edit] Game Availability Now
As LucasArts no longer sells this game (and has not done so for a long time), it is generally considered abandonware, but there are still a few copies floating around on EBay and shops. The game was originally released on a 3 1/2 Inch floppy diskette so use on modern day computers can be difficult. However it is possible (with the use of a floppy drive or an external floppy drive) to burn the disk's content onto a CD and use it that way.
In 1999 a Desktop Adventures fansite had Zip files for both Indiana Jones and Yoda Stories full game downloads for free but the site owner eventually abandoned the site and the downloads subsequently got lost. The full version is fairly rare but is downloadable at the Indy's Desktop Fansite [1]. The demo is more commonly found at many places.
Also elements from this game found their way into the next Indiana Jones game Infernal Machine and the later sequel to this, Emperor's Tomb, despite the fact that Infernal Machine and Emperor's Tomb were direct sequels to Fate Of Atlantis (see below).
[edit] Trivia
- This game is the first Desktop Adventures game, and was followed by Star Wars: Yoda Stories in 1997.
- In the demo, when the winning screen at the end of the game comes up, repeated and fast clicking on the picture will take you back into the game leaving you free to explore around the game despite there being nothing else to do except kill any remaining enemies and restart the demo quest.
- The playing area is displayed from an overhead perspective that is divided into many invisible squares within which Indy can only move between squares but one square at a time. This style of play is first made popular by early console adventure/RPG games such as Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda.
- Although Infernal Machine was a direct sequel to Fate Of Atlantis elements from Desktop Adventures found their way into the next game :
- The round health meter that changes colours ranging green, yellow, red, black as Indy's health deteriorates, this round meter was also used for the design of the breath, puncture and Aetherium threshold meter.
- Health herbs, in small and large varieties, can be found growing throughout the game, also there was the introduction of a Venom-Kit and the Health Kit (although a health kit like the one in Desktop Adventures could be found after much searching in the Castle area of The Last Crusade Graphic Adventure LucasArts had produced in 1989).
- Scorpions, Spiders, Snakes and the odd Jaguar were introduced in Infernal Machine along with Wolves, Monkeys, Sharks and Piranha. All could be killed with the exception of the Jaguars, Wolves and Monkeys when LucasArts was told by one of the play testers that even though these animals posed a threat they did not like the idea of killing them, LucasArts thus changed the programming slightly so that these animals would run away and the sound of gun fire giving the player time to get away from them. However their dying "animation" was not actually removed from the game so with a carefully placed Satchel Charge, Hand Grenade or Rocket they can still be killed.
- This game also (seeing as how the game is still considered canonical) notes the first appearance of the machete in the Indiana Jones series as a stable weapon, it was used a regular after this in Infernal Machine and Emperor's Tomb, strangely enough Desktop adventures is the only game out of the three where the machete can be given to you, in both Infernal Machine and Emperor's Tomb it is found next to the corpse of its previous owner.
- Although all other Indiana Jones games have used Harrison Ford's likeness in their cover art Desktop Adventures used Ford's exact image in his most famous still from Temple Of Doom for their cover art.
[edit] System Information
- PC Windows
- Operating System: Windows 95 or 98
- Computer: IBM and 100% compatibles.
- CPU: 486/33 or faster.
- Memory: 8MB RAM required.
- Operating System: Windows 3.1 and up.
- Graphics Card: PCI Graphics card required.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Indiana Beau
- GameSpot review by Editorial staff
- Indy's Desktop Fansite with a downloadable full version of the game
- Adventure Classic Gaming review
- Demo at Download.com
- TheRaider.net review
- Indiana Jones and His Desktop Adventures at MobyGames
