MS-DOS Game 'Ecstatica'

trickybus

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I have no experience with MS-DOS games.

I discovered Ecstatica (1994) through OneyPlays and I'm trying to find more information on it, particularly about the game's monster AI. I'm specifically impressed with the werewolf: he's got great path-finding, unique animations for ambushing the player, a solid (if somewhat cheap) grasp on the fighting mechanics, and displays self-preservation behavior when he experiences resistance.

I can't think of another retro survival horror game that has such diverse behavior for a chasing monster. Even survival horror games considered masterpieces, like Silent Hill 2, have basic monster interactions *insert metal pipe noises here*. Was it considered too action-y for survival horror? Did early console the hardware make similar feats nonviable? Inquiring minds just got to know!

The OneyPlays video for anyone who's curious:

And the Repo link:
https://retrogametalk.com/repository/msdos/ecstatica-dos-iso/
 
I remember uploading this for DOSBOX, it's weird yeah.

Also has a sequel


EDIT: I found there's a re-release for windows on CD-ROM I'll upload that. Has better graphics allegedly.
 
This game in general is insanely impressive. The rly smooth animations, the use of pre-rendered backgrounds and vectorman sprites, the sheer ammount of unique enemies and characters there are, it's basically the precursor to resident evil and deserves to be talked about just as much (if not more) than sweet home and alone in the dark when it comes to innovating the survival horror genre. Also it has a sentient table boss fight which instantly makes it a 10/10
 
i only heard about this through a youtube year or so ago, this upload is for the sequel but pretty sure he covered the first as well. not helpful to your technical query but might give some background info or something

 
This game in general is insanely impressive. The rly smooth animations, the use of pre-rendered backgrounds and vectorman sprites, the sheer ammount of unique enemies and characters there are, it's basically the precursor to resident evil and deserves to be talked about just as much (if not more) than sweet home and alone in the dark when it comes to innovating the survival horror genre. Also it has a sentient table boss fight which instantly makes it a 10/10
The sentient table is part of the video I linked! That was so out of left field :loldog

Overall, the game has a non-standard mix of horror and humor. I know Resident Evil has its campy charm but a lot of it wasn't intentional. Meanwhile, Ecstatica has 'game over' cutscenes featuring all the monsters hanging out and talking shit about the player. It's so bizarre in the best way!
 
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Okay, popping back in to report on my findings because I'm motivated ::lurking

Two credited developers stand out in particular: Alain Maindron and Andrew Spencer. Maindron is credited as the writer and animator for Ecstatica, so he's likely responsible for the more complex animations such as the cutscenes and the werewolf's ambushes. The other reason why I believe Maindron had a substantial effect on the game's animation quality is because of his background in animation. Before Maindron began working on games, he worked as a traditional 2D animator on several large projects. He began involvement with two productions only a few years before working on Ecstatica: the American animated film An American Tale: Fievel Goes West (1991) and The Dreamstone (1990-1995), a British animated TV series that ran for four seasons.

Andrew Spencer was the programmer, system designer and founder of the titular Andrew Spencer Studios, the studio officially behind Ecstatica and it's sequel. Like Maindron, Spencer had an exstensive background in his area of expertise: he'd already written, designed, and programmed several games for the Commodore 64, another for the Amiga, and yet another for DOS throughout the 80s (I've read claims that he studied mathematics and computer science before developing those games but I can't find a source corroborating that information). The unusually intelligent monster AI is his work and the reason I started doing this research in the first place.

Unfortunately, there isn't much information that I can find on Spencer because shortly after the release of Ecstatica II and the cancellation of another game, Urban Decay, Spencer quit game development. The only picture I can find of him at the time allegedly comes from e German gaming magazine but as I cannot speak German nor am I familiar with early 90s gaming magazines from Germany, I likely won't be running into any new information soon :(

I'm leaving some links here for those who are interested:

This is an Ecstatica wiki that explains the technical details behind the ellipsoid models and the game engine's event manager.

These are Andrew Spencer's game credits.

Alain Maindron's game credits. A link to his movie credits on IMDB is also included.

This is a forum post that records an interview which occurred between a user named boogie76 and Andrew Spencer. The topic is regarding one of Spencer's Commodore 64 games.

The German magazine photo of Spencer:
Andrew Spencer.webp
 
I appreciate this!
I'm here to practice my engrish after all. I think what's relevant for you on the page is :
Joystick : Ecstatica's monsters seem to have been purveyed with personality and feelings. How did you manage to get this result?
Maindron : It's true, the werewolf's behavior, for example, evolve depending on the player's actions and his incarnated form. In fact, what's changing, are the animations. But it seems to confer feelings. Regarding programming in Ecstatica, there's two types of animations. Animations related to the situation or status (i.e. when falling on a rock at the village's entrace, when hurt). And then there are monsters's animations adapted to the player's reactions (the werewolf get scared when hit several times, it looks puzzled at the transformed player, not attacking...)

They also talk about the somewhat heavy requirement to be able to run the game at the time, as the full install on disk was a whopping 70MB, and said their team would increase for a sequel made to run on cheaper hardware than Pentium. I believe I still had a 486 at the time, but I already got the CDRom for Dragon Lore so the game was basically out of my league.
 
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I'm here to practice my engrish after all. I think what's relevant for you on the page is :
Joystick : Ecstatica's monsters seem to have been purveyed with personality and feelings. How did you manage to get this result?
Maindron : It's true, the werewolf's behavior, for example, evolve depending on the player's actions and his incarnated form. In fact, what's changing, are the animations. But it seems to confer feelings. Regarding programming in Ecstatica, there's two types of animations. Animations related to the situation or status (i.e. when falling on a rock at the village's entrace, when hurt). And then there are monsters's animations adapted to the player's reactions (the werewolf get scared when hit several times, it looks puzzled at the transformed player, not attacking...)

They also talk about the somewhat heavy requirement to be able to run the game at the time, as the full install on disk was a whopping 70MB, and said their team would increase for a sequel made to run on cheaper hardware than Pentium. I believe I still had a 486 at the time, but I already got the CDRom for Dragon Lore so the game was basically out of my league.
You're amazing! ::yay
 
I have read the HardcoreGaming101 article about it, and seen that very same OneyPlays video, interesting game to say the least.

Umm... Maybe i should review it.
 
thanks for posting your updated findings, trickybus. indeed a fascinating ahead of its time product.

if you find any further technical explanation of it please repost it here. learning of this game particularly resonated with me as my first introduction to 3d modelling was metaballs in 3dstudiomax sometime early 2000s (well after Ecstatica did its shtick)
 
He began involvement with two productions only a few years before working on Ecstatica: the American animated film An American Tale: Fievel Goes West (1991) and The Dreamstone (1990-1995), a British animated TV series that ran for four seasons.
I had completely forgotten about The Dreamstone 😅
 
I had completely forgotten about The Dreamstone 😅
Have anything to share about it? I've never watched it.
Post automatically merged:

I have read the HardcoreGaming101 article about it, and seen that very same OneyPlays video, interesting game to say the least.

Umm... Maybe i should review it.
You absolutely should!
 
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Not much, just one of those nostalgic cartoons from childhood that I barely remember but can pull me back to those times once I hear the song😅
The opening sequence reminds me of an animated film called Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland

 

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