Archive-name: tv/x-files/uk-faq/part7
Posting-Frequency: monthly Last-modified: 30 September 1996 Version: 3.82 URL: http://www.netvision.co.uk/x-files/home.html See reader questions & answers on this topic! - Help others by sharing your knowledge Part 7 of The UK TXF FAQ The X-Files CD-ROM Game Blurb: They call them the X-philes. In three seasons on the Fox Network, the science fiction series "The X-Files" has grown into the most popular show of its kind since "Star Trek," with fans as rabidly devoted to the show as Trekkies are to theirs. Every week, they keep close track of FBI agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson), as the pair seeks out evidence of the sort of mysterious events most of us only read about in the "National Enquirer" or the "Weekly World News"--paranormal activities, alien abduction, strange mutant creatures living in the sewers, spontaneous combustion, that sort of thing. By the end of next year, the X-philes will have another way to track their heroes' adventures, and maybe even add to them. Over the next year, Seattle-based multimedia producer HyperBole Studios, in collaboration with "X-Files" creator Chris Carter and his production company, Ten-Thirteen, will be working to create an entirely new, interactive episode of "The X-Files" for Fox Interactive, featuring the show's regular cast, to be released on CD-ROM sometime next year. HyperBole's CEO and creative director, Greg Roach, will have his work cut out for him when in comes to pleasing the show's fans. Like all cults, the X-philes have developed their own very strong ideas about the show, and often create and distribute, via the Internet, their own ideas for scenarios and plot lines. (One bizarre plot mixes characters from "The X-Files" with those from the long-running British sci-fi series "Dr. Who"). Members of one offshoot of the X-philes, known as Relationshippers, are even determined to get Mulder and Scully together romantically. What's more, many of the X-philes, like a lot of sci-fi fans in general, are tech heads. There are more than 215 privately operated Web pages devoted to "The X-Files" and its cast, eight different Usenet newsgroups, plus forums on America Online, CompuServe, Prodigy, and who knows what else. And the number of these electronic outlets for "X-File" fan obsession is growing every day. The X-philes are a knowing, sophisticated bunch, and they expect a lot. Which means that anybody who steps into their universe trying to sell them something had better be careful. Something like the "Star Trek" CD-ROMs, which are either animated or feature only minor characters, like Klingons, won't do. Roach, who has produced two earlier CD-ROM science-fiction movies, "Quantum Gate" and "Quantum Gate II: The Vortex," as well as a multimedia novel (a mixture of text, graphics, music, and video), "The Madness of Roland," since founding HyperBole five years ago, is determined to create a different and daring kind of product. One that doesn't involve, as HyperBole president Halle Eavelyn puts it, "little Scully and Mulder characters running around sideways on the screen 3 inches tall with their little guns out and you have to shoot them first or something." In order to do that, Roach will be employing the latest version of a software engine specifically devised for creating interactive, dramatic works: VirtualCinema. VirtualCinema, which Roach designed and first employed on "Quantum Gate," is designed to make watching a story on a PC as much like going to the movies as possible. There are none of the usual distracions that appear on a computer screen. There's no frame surrounding the video image, no icons or toolbars. Occasionally you'll be prompted for a response to a question, and icons can be brought up by placing the mouse pointer on a certain part of the screen, but for the most part all the viewer sees is a movie-screen-shaped image. There's a good deal more to VirtualCinema than that, however. In certain ways, it's the same as other interactive products in that it changes the plot according to the viewer's response. What sets it apart is the subtlety with which it does so. VirtualCinema responds to the viewer's actions not only directly, like a fork in a road (if you do them, you get away from the monster; if you do that, it kills you), but indirectly as well, like a slow, barely noticably bend. "We want to create a movie," Roach says, "that learns from you and reacts to you." To do this, VirtualCinema grades your responses to different situations on a number of scales and adapts itself accordingly. "We track a series of what we call 'ubervariables,'" is the way Roach puts it. Depending on the decisions you make throughout the story, characters will react to you differently. Subtle changes in the environment may occur, the background music will shift in emotional tone, and, of course, the story itself may end in a totally unexpected manner. There are definite advantages in applying VirtualCinema to a universe as morally ambiguous, paranoid, and conspiracy-driven as that of "The X-Files" (high-level government cover-ups of inexplicable events, like alien abduction, are a large part of the show). As an example, Roach says that the "X-Files" CD-ROM will track the viewer's "paranoia level." When you watch the program, you actually become a part of the action, in the role of a third FBI agent working with Mulder and Scully. Along the way you interact with the other characters, pick up clues, and make decisions. If your decisions, or even just the way you interact with the other characters and your environment, reflect a belief that someone, or something, is out to get you--and, in "The X-Files," they probably are--then the program will react to that. The music may become tenser and more eerie, objects in a room may appear more suspicious. You may hear footsteps behind you, or find a mysterious letter on your desk, or perhaps receive a visit from that most sinister of all "X-Files" characters, Cancer Man. For Roach and the rest of the crew at HyperBole, the "X-Files" CD-ROM represents a chance to develop the VirtualCinema technology in an atmosphere free from the financial worries that plague so many multimedia companies. The CD-ROM industry, despite a few million-sellers such as "Myst" and "Doom," has never achieved the market so many were predicting a few years ago. Weighted down with unreal expectations, many multimedia companies, such as Redmond-based Medio, have collapsed, while others, such as Splash Inc., have been absorbed by their investors. Since the release of its sequel "Quantum Gate II: The Vortex," in the fall of 1994, HyperBole has had to shelve any major projects while making ends meet by preparing smaller pieces on contract for Web sites such as the London-based "New Scientist" magazine. But with Fox Interactive footing the bill, HyperBole is free to further develop the art of digital storytelling without any money worries. And Roach believes that the enforced sabbatical the company has taken over the last 18 months will only make "The X-Files" better. "I'm more excited about this than anything we've ever done," he says. "Over this last year-and-a-half hiatus, we have been able to evolve our technology, evolve our conceptual understanding...outside the crucible of creating a product. Now, standing at the threshold with all this cool stuff lined up, I'm thrilled. I feel like we're in the best possible position to capitalize on what this opportunity represents. At this moment, though, things are just getting started. A final script has yet to be written, and physical production, which will be squeezed into Duchovny and Anderson's busy regular series shooting schedule, isn't due to begin until November or December. The final product will be delivered to Fox sometime late spring or early summer next year. Right now, the "X-Files" CD-ROM is little more than several dozen pieces of paper taped to the walls of the central areas of HyperBole's suite of offices. In an arrangement roughly following the proposed storyline, each piece of paper represents different interactive possibilities, grouped according to what traditional filmmakers might call scenes, but that are referred to at HyperBole as nodes. Every sheet of paper contains several elements as well, listed under headings such as "Triggers," "Growth Food," and "Candy." Triggers are just what they sound like, events that trigger certain actions in the storyline. Growth Food represents those actions a viewer has to take in order to progress through the episode. (This is one of the gaming elements that are included in the CD-ROM, a necessity in a market almost entirely dependent on game players. Roach dreams of the day when the market will allow him to create a CD-ROM that you don't have to "play" in the game sense.) Candy is the extra, fun stuff that doesn't matter to the plot, but makes the whole experience more interesting. There is no dialogue yet, and the only detail that you can make out from these mysterious pieces of paper is that the story will take place in the Northwest. Other than that, the story of the "X-Files" CD-ROM, like the result of so many of Mulder and Scully's investigations, is being kept strictly under wraps. But if everything works, those pieces of paper taped to the wall should eventually become an experience eerie and sophisticated enough to appease even the most exacting X-phile. And, who knows, with the multiple ending that the form allows, there might even be something to keep the Relationshippers happy. From TJ Currey's Web Page http://www.halcyon.com/mulder/cdrom.html Fan Clubs There are, again, rumours of an official TXF Fan Club to be launched *soon*, entitled "The X-Files Organisation". Fox have now licenced Titan to run the official fan club. Elsewhere... UNOFFICIAL CHANNELS - UNOFFICIAL UK FAN CLUB FOR THE X-FILES A brilliant year old X-Files club, for UK-based X-Philes. Club offers the cheapest membership rates for an X-Files club *ever*, and on joining you recieve more than in the other fan clubs. Membership gets you a free personalised FBI Card, and a year's subscription to the Unofficial Channels 16-page, bi-monthly newsletter. The newsletter is full of all the latest news, interviews, information on the show (episode guides, profiles, etc.), fan-fiction and much more. Our latest interview subjects have been Steven Williams (who plays X) and Stefan Petrucha (writer of X-Files comics 1-16 and other specials). We plan to have many more X-clusive interviews. For a membership form (which contains more info on the club) send an SAE to; Mike French Unofficial Channels 127 Carlton Road Gidea Park Romford Essex RM2 5AU or visit the WWW page, Department-X at (sometimes is inaccessable due to updating): [http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Unofficial_channels/] http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Unofficial_channels/ Mike can be e-mailed at 100620.3546@CompuServe.COM Newsletters The X-Philes Newsletter(UK) is an A4 newsletter, published 6 times a year (approximately every 2 months). Each issue contains; information about all the latest episodes, what the actors and production crew are up to. There are reviews of episodes and merchandise. Articles related to the X-Files and the paranormal are printed from submissions made by members. Each issue also contains fiction and artwork submitted by members. Details of other X-Files related clubs and events are also published. Subscription rates are as follows: * UK/Eire 7.00 GBP * Europe 10.00 GBP * Everywhere else 15.00 GBP (Airmail) A sample edition is available by sending a large SAE (UK) or 3 IRC's to the address below: Mike Mullen X-Philes Newsletter(UK) 19 Manor Avenue Headingley Leeds LS6 1BY United Kingdom. You can also email Mike for more information. Issue 11 of the X-Philes Newsletter(UK) has just been mailed to all subscribers this week. Features in the current issue include: * Chris Carter interview * 'Talitha Cumi' Review * Topps Comic 13/14 Review * Topps Trading Cards Review * 'Ruins' Book Review * poetry by Jacqui Pillings * Short story "A Sea of Troubles" by Francesca Sainsbury * Plus all the latest episode, acor and merchandise news and views. Credit where credit is due Thanks go to "Martin Williams" for the section on Posting Guidelines "S'teN" for getting the newsgroup off the ground, for the original FAQ, and for arranging the FAQ to be available via auto e-mail! Lee Staniforth for the ManchesXter '97 Convention details Pat Gonzales and everyone that contributed to the Character Background section David Nattriss for various updates Mike Mullen for The UK X-Philes Newsletter details. Mike French for his Unofficial Channels fan club details. Rich Crozier for the details about TXF on IRC. Compiled, edited and rejuvenated (hopefully ;-) by Paul Tang. Original FAQ by S'teN Submissions and/or corrections to : txf@asfafa.demon.co.uk If you want to get *your* name in there, just send me a submission/correction and you'll automatically get listed! *wow* ;) Legalese If there is anything in here that breaks copyright, please inform me. Anything that has a registered trademark is a registered trademark of their respective companies. [er, yeah... :] This guide may be freely distributed, provided it is kept in its entirety and original form. Please only distribute in its entirety. Permission to reproduce, print, or publish portions of this guide must be obtained from the author. Thanks to all contributors, lurkers, and all those in the uk.media.tv.sf.x-files newsgroup. The Truth Is Out There. < Converted by HTMLess v2.0 by Troglobyte/Darkness. Only Amiga... > === The uk.media.tv.sf.x-files Home Page: (Sponsored by Apex) = http://www.netvision.co.uk/x-files ===== = http://pillar.ncl.ac.uk/~naj5/x-files/ = = = = Email paul@asfafa.demon.co.uk // A1230@50Mhz/10Mb/1.1Gb/CD-ROM = === IRC: asfafa (#gb/#disa) \X/ Surf Squirrel, DOpus5, Zip100 === User Contributions: |
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