Cosmic Osmo
Encyclopedia
Cosmic Osmo and the Worlds Beyond the Mackerel is a graphic adventure
computer game for the Macintosh computer line (Plus, SE, SE/30, II Series, Classic, LC) created by Cyan, Inc.. It was published in 1989 and won the 1990 Mac User award.
Spelunx
, Cyan's next title, was made with a similar style of gameplay. In 2007, a new Cosmic Osmo game titled Cosmic Osmo’s: Hex Isle
was released, based loosely on the original's setting but with a more traditional platform game
style of gameplay.
The game begins when the player enters an animated spaceship
hovering in front of the title screen. While inside the ship, he can trigger various events.
The spaceship gives the player the ability to visit various planets. Aside from using the ship to move between planets, a complicated network of shortcuts exists between planets and scenes. The game, being presented in first person view, enables shifts from the macroscopic
to the microscopic
level. Most of the shortcuts are found at the microscopic level; through a water drain or a mouse
's hole, for example.
and Robyn Miller
, who went on to form the company Cyan
and develop the best-selling adventure game Myst
.
It was created, and runs, using HyperCard
. Animated portions were made using MacroMind
VideoWorks, a linear animation program that later became Macromedia Director. A XCMD plug-in enabled VideoWorks animated sprites to be displayed with an alpha mask on top or behind HyperCard's graphic layer.
As it was one of the first CD-ROM
games, Cyan also offered a floppy disk
version that didn't include background music. For those who didn't have a CD-ROM drive, the floppy version offered fewer planets to explore and required a hard drive for installation.
The game was reportedly developed for th SNES-CD, a video game console add-on that was never released. Consequently, the game was not released either.
In May 2007, a company called HyperActive Software announced that they had been contracted by Cyan to create a Windows
version of the game, to be released via GameTap
, which was released on June 19, 2008.
On August 4, 2010 the game became available for purchase through Steam as part of a bundle that also includes the other Cyan Worlds
titles Manhole Masterpiece, Myst: Masterpiece Edition, realMyst, Riven: The Sequel to Myst, URU: Complete Chronicles, and Spelunx and the caves of Mr. Seudo.
. There is no goal, no system of scoring points
, and nothing that the player can keep in an inventory. A player can be said to have "finished" the game if they've explored every area and found every secret, but the game gives no feedback to indicate whether this has happened. Although this is unconventional, it allows finding new secrets to be a genuine surprise, while avoiding the frustration of endlessly searching the game for the last secret to achieve 100% completion.
Although Osmo was advertised as a children's game, people of all ages have declared themselves fans. The game has a humorous tone, and popular culture references abound. For example, one object the player can find is an album by a band called "Swabs
N' Roses", a reference to Guns N' Roses
.
's sound commands, and 18 tracks of original Red Book Audio background music on the CD-ROM
version, much of which was written by Shep Lovick and Robyn Miller and features Kyle Stroud prominently on the saxophone.
Cyan Worlds mentioned nothing of the game before its release. The game draws on the universe and style of its predecessor, but is a puzzle-solving platform game
instead of a click-through adventure.
Adventure game
An adventure game is a video game in which the player assumes the role of protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and puzzle-solving instead of physical challenge. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based media such as literature and film,...
computer game for the Macintosh computer line (Plus, SE, SE/30, II Series, Classic, LC) created by Cyan, Inc.. It was published in 1989 and won the 1990 Mac User award.
Spelunx
Spelunx
Spelunx and the Caves of Mr. Seudo is a 1991 educational computer game designed by Robyn and Rand Miller, best known as the creators of Myst. Robyn Miller also hand-drew all of the graphics in the game....
, Cyan's next title, was made with a similar style of gameplay. In 2007, a new Cosmic Osmo game titled Cosmic Osmo’s: Hex Isle
Cosmic Osmo’s: Hex Isle
Cosmic Osmo’s: Hex Isle is a 3D puzzle/adventure game for Mac and PC by Cyan Worlds and Fanista released on November 30, 2007. It is a sequel to the adventure game Cosmic Osmo and the Worlds Beyond the Mackerel, also by Cyan Worlds. Osmo has been incarcerated because of his extreme laziness...
was released, based loosely on the original's setting but with a more traditional platform game
Platform game
A platform game is a video game characterized by requiring the player to jump to and from suspended platforms or over obstacles . It must be possible to control these jumps and to fall from platforms or miss jumps...
style of gameplay.
Game mechanics
The game features a point and click interface. The player clicks on various elements in a scene to trigger events. To move between scenes and rooms, the player clicks on doors or near the edge of the screen.The game begins when the player enters an animated spaceship
Spacecraft
A spacecraft or spaceship is a craft or machine designed for spaceflight. Spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, earth observation, meteorology, navigation, planetary exploration and transportation of humans and cargo....
hovering in front of the title screen. While inside the ship, he can trigger various events.
The spaceship gives the player the ability to visit various planets. Aside from using the ship to move between planets, a complicated network of shortcuts exists between planets and scenes. The game, being presented in first person view, enables shifts from the macroscopic
Macroscopic
The macroscopic scale is the length scale on which objects or processes are of a size which is measurable and observable by the naked eye.When applied to phenomena and abstract objects, the macroscopic scale describes existence in the world as we perceive it, often in contrast to experiences or...
to the microscopic
Microscopic
The microscopic scale is the scale of size or length used to describe objects smaller than those that can easily be seen by the naked eye and which require a lens or microscope to see them clearly.-History:...
level. Most of the shortcuts are found at the microscopic level; through a water drain or a mouse
Mouse
A mouse is a small mammal belonging to the order of rodents. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse . It is also a popular pet. In some places, certain kinds of field mice are also common. This rodent is eaten by large birds such as hawks and eagles...
's hole, for example.
Development
Cosmic Osmo was created by brothers RandRand Miller
Rand Miller co-founded Cyan with brother Robyn Miller and became famous from the unexpected success of their computer game Myst, which remained the number one-selling game for the remainder of the 1990s...
and Robyn Miller
Robyn Miller
Robyn Charles Miller co-founded Cyan Worlds with brother Rand Miller. After releasing a number of children's adventure "worlds", the brothers finally hit on a success with the computer game Myst, which remained the number one-selling game for the remainder of the 1990s...
, who went on to form the company Cyan
Cyan Worlds
Cyan Worlds, Inc. is a video game development company, founded by brothers Rand and Robyn Miller in 1987, and best known as the creators of the Myst series. After Myst and its sequel Riven sold several million copies each, Cyan went on to create the massively multiplayer online adventure, Uru,...
and develop the best-selling adventure game Myst
Myst
Myst is a graphic adventure video game designed and directed by the brothers Robyn and Rand Miller. It was developed by Cyan , a Spokane, Washington––based studio, and published and distributed by Brøderbund. The Millers began working on Myst in and released it for the Mac OS computer on September...
.
It was created, and runs, using HyperCard
HyperCard
HyperCard is an application program created by Bill Atkinson for Apple Computer, Inc. that was among the first successful hypermedia systems before the World Wide Web. It combines database capabilities with a graphical, flexible, user-modifiable interface. HyperCard also features HyperTalk, written...
. Animated portions were made using MacroMind
MacroMind
MacroMind was an Apple Macintosh software company founded in Chicago in 1984 by Marc Canter, Jay Fenton and Mark Stephen Pierce. The company's first product was SoundVision, a combined music and graphics editor. Before the release, the graphics editor was removed, and SoundVision became MusicWorks...
VideoWorks, a linear animation program that later became Macromedia Director. A XCMD plug-in enabled VideoWorks animated sprites to be displayed with an alpha mask on top or behind HyperCard's graphic layer.
As it was one of the first CD-ROM
CD-ROM
A CD-ROM is a pre-pressed compact disc that contains data accessible to, but not writable by, a computer for data storage and music playback. The 1985 “Yellow Book” standard developed by Sony and Philips adapted the format to hold any form of binary data....
games, Cyan also offered a floppy disk
Floppy disk
A floppy disk is a disk storage medium composed of a disk of thin and flexible magnetic storage medium, sealed in a rectangular plastic carrier lined with fabric that removes dust particles...
version that didn't include background music. For those who didn't have a CD-ROM drive, the floppy version offered fewer planets to explore and required a hard drive for installation.
The game was reportedly developed for th SNES-CD, a video game console add-on that was never released. Consequently, the game was not released either.
In May 2007, a company called HyperActive Software announced that they had been contracted by Cyan to create a Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
version of the game, to be released via GameTap
GameTap
GameTap is an American online video game service established by Turner Broadcasting System . Dubbed by TBS as a "first of its kind broadband gaming network", the service provides users with classic arcade video games and game-related video content...
, which was released on June 19, 2008.
On August 4, 2010 the game became available for purchase through Steam as part of a bundle that also includes the other Cyan Worlds
Cyan Worlds
Cyan Worlds, Inc. is a video game development company, founded by brothers Rand and Robyn Miller in 1987, and best known as the creators of the Myst series. After Myst and its sequel Riven sold several million copies each, Cyan went on to create the massively multiplayer online adventure, Uru,...
titles Manhole Masterpiece, Myst: Masterpiece Edition, realMyst, Riven: The Sequel to Myst, URU: Complete Chronicles, and Spelunx and the caves of Mr. Seudo.
Goals and artistic design
Cosmic Osmo has a style of gameplay similar to Cyan's previous game, The ManholeThe Manhole
The Manhole is a computer adventure game intended for children in which the player opens a manhole and reveals a gigantic beanstalk that can be climbed either up or down, leading to fantastic worlds in either case.-Summary:...
. There is no goal, no system of scoring points
Score (gaming)
In games, score refers to an abstract quantity associated with a player or team. Score is usually measured in the abstract unit of points, and events in the game can raise or lower the score of different parties...
, and nothing that the player can keep in an inventory. A player can be said to have "finished" the game if they've explored every area and found every secret, but the game gives no feedback to indicate whether this has happened. Although this is unconventional, it allows finding new secrets to be a genuine surprise, while avoiding the frustration of endlessly searching the game for the last secret to achieve 100% completion.
Although Osmo was advertised as a children's game, people of all ages have declared themselves fans. The game has a humorous tone, and popular culture references abound. For example, one object the player can find is an album by a band called "Swabs
Cotton swab
Cotton swabs or cotton buds or ear buds consist of a small wad of cotton wrapped around one or both ends of a short rod, usually made of either wood, rolled paper, or plastic...
N' Roses", a reference to Guns N' Roses
Guns N' Roses
Guns N' Roses is an American hard rock band, formed in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, in 1985. The band has released six studio albums, three EPs, and one live album...
.
Music and sound
The game features digitized voices and sounds that were played by HyperCardHyperCard
HyperCard is an application program created by Bill Atkinson for Apple Computer, Inc. that was among the first successful hypermedia systems before the World Wide Web. It combines database capabilities with a graphical, flexible, user-modifiable interface. HyperCard also features HyperTalk, written...
's sound commands, and 18 tracks of original Red Book Audio background music on the CD-ROM
CD-ROM
A CD-ROM is a pre-pressed compact disc that contains data accessible to, but not writable by, a computer for data storage and music playback. The 1985 “Yellow Book” standard developed by Sony and Philips adapted the format to hold any form of binary data....
version, much of which was written by Shep Lovick and Robyn Miller and features Kyle Stroud prominently on the saxophone.
System requirements (CD-ROM Version)
- Hard drive
- Apple CD-SCSI CD-ROMCD-ROMA CD-ROM is a pre-pressed compact disc that contains data accessible to, but not writable by, a computer for data storage and music playback. The 1985 “Yellow Book” standard developed by Sony and Philips adapted the format to hold any form of binary data....
drive or equivalent (access time of 1000 msMillisecondA millisecond is a thousandth of a second.10 milliseconds are called a centisecond....
) - System 6.04 or higher
- 1 MBMegabyteThe megabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage or transmission with two different values depending on context: bytes generally for computer memory; and one million bytes generally for computer storage. The IEEE Standards Board has decided that "Mega will mean 1 000...
of internal memoryRam-Animals:*Ram, an uncastrated male sheep*Ram cichlid, a species of freshwater fish endemic to Colombia and Venezuela-Military:*Battering ram*Ramming, a military tactic in which one vehicle runs into another...
* - Computers running System 7.0System 7 (Macintosh)System 7 is a single-user graphical user interface-based operating system for Macintosh computers. It was introduced on May 13, 1991 by Apple Computer. It succeeded System 6, and was the main Macintosh operating system until it was succeeded by Mac OS 8 in 1997...
require at least 2.5 MBMegabyteThe megabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage or transmission with two different values depending on context: bytes generally for computer memory; and one million bytes generally for computer storage. The IEEE Standards Board has decided that "Mega will mean 1 000...
Disk version
The disk version only has four planets (out of seven) and has less animation. It is simply known as Cosmic Osmo.Sequel
A sequel to Cosmic Osmo called Cosmic Osmo's Hex Isle was released on November 30, 2007. Hex Isle was sold exclusively through a website called Fanista Beta, and works on Windows and Intel Macs. Fanista later went out of business and the game was discontinued.Cyan Worlds mentioned nothing of the game before its release. The game draws on the universe and style of its predecessor, but is a puzzle-solving platform game
Platform game
A platform game is a video game characterized by requiring the player to jump to and from suspended platforms or over obstacles . It must be possible to control these jumps and to fall from platforms or miss jumps...
instead of a click-through adventure.