The Feeble Files
Encyclopedia
The Feeble Files is an adventure
game about the adventures of a rather ‘feeble’ alien called Feeble. The game is a science fiction
comedy
, with a similar style of British humour
to that of Adventure Soft
’s previous games, the Simon the Sorcerer series
.
It was created and released in the UK
in 1997 by Adventure Soft. e.p.i.c. interactive (now RuneSoft
) created a Mac version in 2001 and an Amiga
version in 2002 that were released in Europe
. In 2002 the Mac version was released in the U.S.
.
The game was made available for DRM-free digital distribution from GOG.com
on December 30, 2008.
2D
graphics at much a higher resolution
than the Simon the Sorcerer games series. However, given the five year gap between its original UK release and the US release there have been several claims that it looks dated.
Voice Acting: To bring Feeble’s world to life several famous actors were recruited to provide the voices. Feeble was voiced by Robert Llewellyn
from the BBC comedy Red Dwarf
(after previously having co-star Chris Barrie
as Simon the Sorcerer
), and Blake's 7
’s Peter Tuddenham
provides the voice for the Oracle.
Interaction: For interaction the game uses a point-and-click
navigation system synonymous with adventure games. The player is in control of the main character, Feeble, and must solve various puzzles to advance through the game and complete his quest. However, the player eventually gets the opportunity to use SAM, a robot with a penchant for genocide, to solve certain puzzles in the game. When using SAM the players cursor changes and different options are available to interact with objects in the environment, adding more depth to the gameplay.
At one point during the game the player must win several arcade games in order to advance, however these games use completely different gameplay
methods and often proved to be very difficult for players. In the end Adventure Soft released a saved game
just after the arcade section to allow people to carry on playing.
The story and puzzles within the game are all of a linear nature.
Music: Unusually for this type of game, there is no background music during gameplay segments, only ambient sound. Cutscenes, however, have full music soundtracks.
which describes a government and society similar to Feeble's and features a protagonist with similar ambitions as Feeble's.
OmniBrain: The OmniBrain is the governing power of the galaxy, controlling and seeing everything via the all-powerful OmniCorporation and its tortuous bureaucracy, and the sinister Enforcers. The game states “he considers all life forms everywhere to be his citizens, and he loves them and cares for them in the way that is best for them, and wants them all to be happy. Praise be to the OmniBrain!" This fine line between a god
and a dictatorship
is explored at many points throughout the game. One example of this is the Happy Bots who patrol the city to ensure that everyone is happy. However, they achieve this in a rather unorthodox way, by killing anyone who is sad.
Ministry of Galactic Uncertainty: Feeble works for the Ministry of Galactic Uncertainty (Crop Circle
Division). It is his job to fly to undeveloped planets, such as Earth
, and create crop circles in order to increase the indigenous population's paranoia and uncertainty about the universe. This is to stimulate greater scientific investigation and technological development, until the planet is sufficiently advanced that it is ready to be absorbed by the OmniCorporation.
Directives: Directives are rules created by the OmniBrain to make the world better; there are over a million of them. As the game progresses a record is kept of all the rules that Feeble has broken.
since version 0.9.1. In order to play the Windows version, older ScummVM versions required the Smacker
cutscenes to be reencoded using RAD Game Tools
and the ScummVM Tools package. However, since ScummVM 0.13.0 this is not necessary anymore.
The Windows versions and later Mac versions are stored within an installer. The Windows Installshield
setup can be extracted with i5comp/i6comp. The Mac installer must be run under Mac OS X or SheepShaver
as nothing can currently extract the contents of VISE
. Orange of the SynCE linux suite may one day be able to do it.
Windows 2CD:
Amiga and Mac:
Audio quality and video resolution of cutscenes:
Windows 4CD: 22050 Hz PCM audio; 640x480 video (Smacker
).
Mac: 11025 Hz ADPCM audio; 640x480 video (dxa).
Amiga: 11025 Hz PCM audio; 384x280 video (dxa).
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,...
game about the adventures of a rather ‘feeble’ alien called Feeble. The game is a science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
comedy
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
, with a similar style of British humour
British humour
British humour is a somewhat general term applied to certain comedic motifs that are often prevalent in comedic acts originating in the United Kingdom and its current or former colonies...
to that of Adventure Soft
Adventure Soft
Adventure Soft is a UK-based video game developer established by Mike Woodroffe, first as an importer and reseller of Adventure International games. The firm operates out of Sutton Coldfield, and is best known for the Simon the Sorcerer series of games....
’s previous games, the Simon the Sorcerer series
Simon the Sorcerer
Simon the Sorcerer is an adventure game that was released by Adventure Soft on 2 January 1993 for Amiga and MS-DOS formats. The story begins with the protagonist, Simon, as an ordinary teenager. His dog, "Chippy", discovers a chest in the loft of his house containing a spellbook titled "Ye Olde...
.
It was created and released in the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
in 1997 by Adventure Soft. e.p.i.c. interactive (now RuneSoft
RuneSoft
Runesoft GmbH is a German publisher founded in 2000 that ports games to alternative platforms such as Linux, Mac OS X, AmigaOS, MorphOS, and magnussoft ZETA...
) created a Mac version in 2001 and an Amiga
Amiga
The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...
version in 2002 that were released in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
. In 2002 the Mac version was released in the U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
The game was made available for DRM-free digital distribution from GOG.com
GOG.com
Good Old Games is a computer game sale and distribution service owned by Polish company CD Projekt.- History :The service sells older PC games. In order to ensure compatibility with newer versions of Microsoft Windows, some games are pre-patched or bundled with Open Source emulation and...
on December 30, 2008.
Presentation
Graphics: The game is presented in pre-renderedPre-rendered
Pre-rendering is the process in which video footage is not rendered in real-time by the hardware that is outputing or playing back the video. Instead, the video is a recording of a footage that was previously rendered on a different equipment...
2D
2D computer graphics
2D computer graphics is the computer-based generation of digital images—mostly from two-dimensional models and by techniques specific to them...
graphics at much a higher resolution
Image resolution
Image resolution is an umbrella term that describes the detail an image holds. The term applies to raster digital images, film images, and other types of images. Higher resolution means more image detail....
than the Simon the Sorcerer games series. However, given the five year gap between its original UK release and the US release there have been several claims that it looks dated.
Voice Acting: To bring Feeble’s world to life several famous actors were recruited to provide the voices. Feeble was voiced by Robert Llewellyn
Robert Llewellyn
Robert Llewellyn is an English actor, presenter, and writer. He is best known as the mechanoid Kryten in the hit sitcom Red Dwarf, and for his role as presenter of Scrapheap Challenge.-Early career:...
from the BBC comedy Red Dwarf
Red Dwarf
Red Dwarf is a British comedy franchise which primarily comprises eight series of a television science fiction sitcom that aired on BBC Two between 1988 and 1999 and Dave from 2009–present. It gained cult following. It was created by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, who also wrote the first six series...
(after previously having co-star Chris Barrie
Chris Barrie
Chris Barrie is a British actor. He first achieved success as a vocal impressionist, notably in the ITV sketch show Spitting Image...
as Simon the Sorcerer
Simon the Sorcerer
Simon the Sorcerer is an adventure game that was released by Adventure Soft on 2 January 1993 for Amiga and MS-DOS formats. The story begins with the protagonist, Simon, as an ordinary teenager. His dog, "Chippy", discovers a chest in the loft of his house containing a spellbook titled "Ye Olde...
), and Blake's 7
Blake's 7
Blake's 7 is a British science fiction television series produced by the BBC for its BBC1 channel. The series was created by Terry Nation, a prolific television writer and creator of the Daleks for the television series Doctor Who. Four series of Blake's 7 were produced and broadcast between 1978...
’s Peter Tuddenham
Peter Tuddenham
Peter Tuddenham was a British actor, best known for providing the voices of Zen, Orac and Slave, computers on the science fiction TV show Blake's 7....
provides the voice for the Oracle.
Interaction: For interaction the game uses a point-and-click
Point-and-click
Point-and-click is the action of a computer user moving a cursor to a certain location on a screen and then pressing a mouse button, usually the left button , or other pointing device...
navigation system synonymous with adventure games. The player is in control of the main character, Feeble, and must solve various puzzles to advance through the game and complete his quest. However, the player eventually gets the opportunity to use SAM, a robot with a penchant for genocide, to solve certain puzzles in the game. When using SAM the players cursor changes and different options are available to interact with objects in the environment, adding more depth to the gameplay.
At one point during the game the player must win several arcade games in order to advance, however these games use completely different gameplay
Gameplay
Gameplay is the specific way in which players interact with a game, and in particular with video games. Gameplay is the pattern defined through the game rules, connection between player and the game, challenges and overcoming them, plot and player's connection with it...
methods and often proved to be very difficult for players. In the end Adventure Soft released a saved game
Saved game
A saved game is a piece of digitally stored information about the progress of a player in a video game. This saved game can be reloaded later, so the player can continue where he or she had stopped...
just after the arcade section to allow people to carry on playing.
The story and puzzles within the game are all of a linear nature.
Music: Unusually for this type of game, there is no background music during gameplay segments, only ambient sound. Cutscenes, however, have full music soundtracks.
The Game World
The world of The Feeble Files is very detailed and contains large amounts of information and dialogue that is superfluous to the plot. It's loosely based on elements of George Orwell's book 1984Nineteen Eighty-Four
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell is a dystopian novel about Oceania, a society ruled by the oligarchical dictatorship of the Party...
which describes a government and society similar to Feeble's and features a protagonist with similar ambitions as Feeble's.
OmniBrain: The OmniBrain is the governing power of the galaxy, controlling and seeing everything via the all-powerful OmniCorporation and its tortuous bureaucracy, and the sinister Enforcers. The game states “he considers all life forms everywhere to be his citizens, and he loves them and cares for them in the way that is best for them, and wants them all to be happy. Praise be to the OmniBrain!" This fine line between a god
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
and a dictatorship
Dictatorship
A dictatorship is defined as an autocratic form of government in which the government is ruled by an individual, the dictator. It has three possible meanings:...
is explored at many points throughout the game. One example of this is the Happy Bots who patrol the city to ensure that everyone is happy. However, they achieve this in a rather unorthodox way, by killing anyone who is sad.
Ministry of Galactic Uncertainty: Feeble works for the Ministry of Galactic Uncertainty (Crop Circle
Crop circle
A crop circle is a sizable pattern created by the flattening of a crop such as wheat, barley, rye, maize, or rapeseed. Crop circles are also referred to as crop formations, because they are not always circular in shape. While the exact date crop circles began to appear is unknown, the documented...
Division). It is his job to fly to undeveloped planets, such as Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
, and create crop circles in order to increase the indigenous population's paranoia and uncertainty about the universe. This is to stimulate greater scientific investigation and technological development, until the planet is sufficiently advanced that it is ready to be absorbed by the OmniCorporation.
Directives: Directives are rules created by the OmniBrain to make the world better; there are over a million of them. As the game progresses a record is kept of all the rules that Feeble has broken.
Using ScummVM
All versions of the game are fully compatible with ScummVMScummVM
ScummVM is a collection of game engine recreations. Originally designed to play LucasArts adventure games that use the SCUMM system , it now also supports a variety of non-SCUMM games by companies like Revolution Software and Adventure Soft. It was originally written by Ludvig Strigeus...
since version 0.9.1. In order to play the Windows version, older ScummVM versions required the Smacker
Smacker video
Smacker video is a video file format developed by RAD Game Tools and has been used in computer games. Smacker video supports 256 colors, and includes transparency support...
cutscenes to be reencoded using RAD Game Tools
RAD Game Tools
RAD Game Tools is privately held company owned by Jeff Roberts and Mitch Soule based in Kirkland, Washington that develops video and computer game software technologies which are licensed primarily by video game companies. RAD Game Tools is somewhat unusual among middleware companies as they...
and the ScummVM Tools package. However, since ScummVM 0.13.0 this is not necessary anymore.
The Windows versions and later Mac versions are stored within an installer. The Windows Installshield
InstallShield
InstallShield is a software tool for creating installers or software packages. InstallShield is primarily used for installing software for Microsoft Windows desktop and server platforms, but it can also be used to manage software applications and packages on a variety of handheld and mobile devices...
setup can be extracted with i5comp/i6comp. The Mac installer must be run under Mac OS X or SheepShaver
SheepShaver
SheepShaver is an open source PowerPC Apple Macintosh emulator originally designed for BeOS and Linux. The name is a play on ShapeShifter, a Macintosh II emulator for AmigaOS , which is in turn not to be confused with a third-party preference pane for Mac OS X with the same name...
as nothing can currently extract the contents of VISE
Installer VISE
Installer VISE is an installer maker that supports Mac OS 9, Mac OS X, and Windows by MindVision Software. Originally created Mac-only, it was one of the most popular installer makers for the platform, now surpassed by Apple's Installer....
. Orange of the SynCE linux suite may one day be able to do it.
Ports
Windows 4CD:- Original release of game.
Windows 2CD:
- Reduced video quality of cutscenes, compared to original release.
- Removed several cutscenes (Fmain, Mix_Snip1, Mix_Snip2, Mix_Snip3, Mix_Snip4, Mix_Snip5, Mix_Snip6, Mix_Snip7, Mix_Snip8) of docking controller and pilot arguing at Metro Prime.
Amiga and Mac:
- Reduced audio and video quality of cutscenes, compared to original release. (Reduced video resolution in Amiga version too)
- Removed several cutscenes (Fmain, Mix_Snip1, Mix_Snip2, Mix_Snip3, Mix_Snip4, Mix_Snip5, Mix_Snip6, Mix_Snip7, Mix_Snip8) of docking controller and pilot arguing at Metro Prime.
- Removed the background chatter between docking controller and pilot at Metro Prime.
- Removed the OmniTV cutscenes (Charisma, Nextdoor, Omnitoy, Qtime), which are displayed on television in the prison of Cygnus Alpha.
- Removed the epilogue cutscene (WhoWhat).
Audio quality and video resolution of cutscenes:
Windows 4CD: 22050 Hz PCM audio; 640x480 video (Smacker
Smacker video
Smacker video is a video file format developed by RAD Game Tools and has been used in computer games. Smacker video supports 256 colors, and includes transparency support...
).
Mac: 11025 Hz ADPCM audio; 640x480 video (dxa).
Amiga: 11025 Hz PCM audio; 384x280 video (dxa).