| Tass Times in Tonetown | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Interplay Productions, Brainwave Creations |
| Publisher(s) | Activision |
| Designer(s) | Michael Berlyn,Muffy McClung Berlyn, Bill Heineman |
| Platform(s) | Atari ST, Amiga, Apple II, Apple IIGS, Commodore 64, DOS, Macintosh. |
| Release date(s) | 1986 |
| Genre(s) | Adventure game |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
Tass Times in Tonetown is a 1986 adventure-themed computer game by Activision for multiple computer platforms. It was written by veteran Infocom designer Michael Berlyn and his long-time collaborator Muffy McClung Berlyn, and programmed by Bill Heineman of Interplay Productions, in cooperation with Brainwave Creations.[1]
Tass Times was released for the Atari ST, Amiga, Commodore 64, Apple II, Apple IIGS, Macintosh and DOS. MobyGames notes that the PC port was released in the form of a booter, making the program effectively OS-agnostic.
The game has the distinction of being the first commercial game made available for the IIGS.[1]
Contents |
The plot of the game involves the player getting sucked into Tonetown, a surreal alternate world seemingly based on a distillation of 1980s culture, with overtones of punk and New Wave culture (such as pink hair, etc.). The word "Tass" in the title refers to an adjective used within the parallel world of Tonetown. Its basic meaning is somewhat akin to "cool" or "hip". Game designer Michael Berlyn gives the following source for the word:
| “ | Muffy and I were employed there [at Harvard], teaching creative writing. And the motto of Harvard is 'Veritas,' which means 'truth.' We took to saying 'very tass' to mean, 'very true,' or 'too true.' Our students picked it up and started applying it to something that was cool. So very tass turned into very hip or cool.[2]" | ” |
The game's narrative begins with the player character inside a cabin belonging to "Gramps", a relative and inventor who has gone missing. While searching the cabin, the player activates one of Gramps' latest inventions: a device that resembles an electronically powered hoop. Gramps' pet dog, Spot, jumps through the active hoop and disappears. The player follows him and is transported to the mysterious Tonetown world alongside Spot, discovering that "Spot", in this world, is not only sentient and capable of speech but is actually a celebrity resident named "Ennio the Legend". Ennio travels along with the player, providing commentary and advice as well alerting the player to danger.
The player learns that Gramps' mysterious disappearance extends even into the Tonetown world, and may have been arranged by the villainous Franklin Snarl. Snarl, a surreal combination of a pig, a raccoon and (most obviously) a crocodile, is a ruthless business magnate. He is also a murderously hostile Tonetown nativist, openly violent to most "tourists" (foreigners) he encounters. His negative effects on the local culture had begun to attract media attention against him, culminating in the disappearance of Gramps.
To progress in the game, the player must assimilate into Tonetown's culture, using guitar picks as currency and partaking in its party scene, its "tass" music, including the popular band The Daglets, and such delicacies as "GloBurgers". The player encounters technology unique to Tonetown such as the "zagtone" (a device that plays variable notes depending on what object it is struck against), as well as bizarre creatures including the cute but destructive "blobpet" and dangerous monsters. The blobpet also makes an appearance in the animated intro exclusive to the Apple II/DOS ports.
Gramps is eventually revealed to be Snarl's prisoner, held captive in an island office tower. After rescuing him, the player brings the group to a final confrontation with Snarl at his mansion, with Snarl possessing the Tonetown world's iteration of the hoop device. While Ennio holds Snarl at bay, Gramps activates the hoop and the player throws Snarl through it. The player enters the hoop and is returned to the "normal" world just outside Gramps' cabin, discovering that Snarl's arrival into the normal world has transformed him into three separate creatures - which the game's narrator describes as "a cute little pig, a darling raccoon, and a little crocodile shedding a few tears".
Talking to Snarl during the final sequence reveals that Gramps himself had created him, using the hoop device and the three original animal specimens, and that he had captured Gramps with the intention of continuing his work at any cost. It is also hinted that Tonetown itself may have been created entirely by Gramps' imagination, who then discovered a way to physically travel to it.
The game's genre was the now nearly extinct "graphical text adventure". Somewhat like classical text adventures or the early Sierra games, players use text commands (e.g. "TAKE HOOPLET") to interact with the game, but like Lucasarts adventure games (or the later Sierra games), they also use an intuitive GUI. The player viewed the world of the game through a small window at the top left of the screen in which their surroundings were displayed. Much like The Bard's Tale, this view was static (or mostly so); it was not animated, though it was context-sensitive (players could click on objects in this window rather than typing their names).
Like many text adventures of this era, Tass Times had at its share of possible unwinnable situations in which players can discover themselves trapped. The most infamous of these is Gramps' lab book, which is found in his cabin at the start of the game, and is used to complete the game at almost its very end. Hapless players can leave the book behind only to realize it is needed for game completion right when they are on the verge of completing it. Other scenarios include many possible instances of saving the game in situations in which death can never be avoided in time, such as in a location too far away from the shopping boutiques, so that Snarl will kill a player still deemed a "tourist" before Tonetown apparel and hairstyles can ever be purchased.
Tass Times had different features and graphics depending on which system it was developed for. This was a common practice for games of its era due to the disparate abilities of the systems of that era. For example, the higher-end system (Amiga, Atari ST and Apple IIGS) versions had superb graphics, while the lower-end (Apple II, DOS) versions had more rudimentary graphics. Likewise, the higher-end systems supported sound, while some of the lower-end ports had no sound capability. The low-end versions, however, had a fully animated intro screen, depicting what may have been Ennio's first arrival into the mundane world.
A notable achievement for the DOS version of the game was its support for serial mice back in 1986, when mice for PC's were very uncommon. Since it was originally a booting game, the programmers spent the time to support serial mice natively.[2]
András Szigethy converted the Commodore 64 version of Tass Times to Commodore Plus/4.
Game reviewers Hartley and Pattie Lesser commented on the game in their "The Role of Computers" column in Dragon #116 (1986), stating "This one is truly bizarre."[3]