Total Distortion
Encyclopedia
Total Distortion is a 1995 full motion video
adventure game
for Mac and Windows
, developed by Pop Rocket. It was critically acclaimed for being innovative and creative.
The gameplay has the player as a music video
entrepreneur in the "Distortion Dimension", a place where you fight "Guitar Warriors" which you face in guitar battle
s. The ultimate goal of the game is to get fame points, make lots of money, and to film successful music video
s. The game was also known for its sense of humor (the game over
screen featured the enemy singing a song known as "You Are Dead" featuring lyrics such as, "You heart has stopped and your brain is cold... You are so so dead"). One of the most distinctive features of the game was the sleep mode. When player went to sleep, a dream appeared which consisted of a minigame. If the player failed the dream sequence it would result in a nightmare
, which decreased mental energy (an important stat in the game).
The programming of this game was headed up mostly by Joe Sparks
, creator of Radiskull and Devil Doll.
Rather than finding foreign alien life on other worlds, the dimension teleportation technology takes them to different realities of Earth where certain forms of Pop Culture flourished ranging from cartoons, comics to music which was created from the dreaming minds of the youth. When your producer passed away, his will entrusted you with 3 million dollars, with the stale state of pop culture on this Earth, you set out to the Total Distortion Dimension to bring back music videos back to Earth. Do you have what it takes or will the Metal Lord's Guitar Warriors put an end to your career in a bid to protect the dimension?
Full motion video
Full motion video based games are video games that rely upon pre-recorded TV-quality movie or animation rather than sprites, vectors, or 3D models to display action in the game. In the early 1990s a diverse set of games utilized this format...
adventure game
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,...
for Mac and 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...
, developed by Pop Rocket. It was critically acclaimed for being innovative and creative.
The gameplay has the player as a music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
entrepreneur in the "Distortion Dimension", a place where you fight "Guitar Warriors" which you face in guitar battle
Guitar Battle
A guitar battle is where two or more guitar players take turns soloing, either with or without a rhythm section. The purpose of the guitar battle is to determine who among each of the guitar players present is the most proficient on the instrument...
s. The ultimate goal of the game is to get fame points, make lots of money, and to film successful music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
s. The game was also known for its sense of humor (the game over
Game over
Game Over is a message in video games which signals that the game has ended, often due to a negative outcome - although the phrase sometimes follows the end credits after successful completion of a game...
screen featured the enemy singing a song known as "You Are Dead" featuring lyrics such as, "You heart has stopped and your brain is cold... You are so so dead"). One of the most distinctive features of the game was the sleep mode. When player went to sleep, a dream appeared which consisted of a minigame. If the player failed the dream sequence it would result in a nightmare
Nightmare
A nightmare is an unpleasant dream that can cause a strong negative emotional response from the mind, typically fear or horror, but also despair, anxiety and great sadness. The dream may contain situations of danger, discomfort, psychological or physical terror...
, which decreased mental energy (an important stat in the game).
The programming of this game was headed up mostly by Joe Sparks
Joe Sparks
Joe Sparks is an American video game developer, animator, songwriter, web publisher, and multimedia consultant from San Francisco, California....
, creator of Radiskull and Devil Doll.
Story
Six years before the producer's journey began into the Total Distortion dimension. An alien artifact was discovered by the US government who learned the technology was a transportation device, which can teleport any objects to any place in an instant. The technology however is not perfect, large object required lots of power and organic beings are forced into a state of coma for six weeks. Thankfully they found ways to allow for safe dimensional travel but what they found next is the most shocking.Rather than finding foreign alien life on other worlds, the dimension teleportation technology takes them to different realities of Earth where certain forms of Pop Culture flourished ranging from cartoons, comics to music which was created from the dreaming minds of the youth. When your producer passed away, his will entrusted you with 3 million dollars, with the stale state of pop culture on this Earth, you set out to the Total Distortion Dimension to bring back music videos back to Earth. Do you have what it takes or will the Metal Lord's Guitar Warriors put an end to your career in a bid to protect the dimension?
External links
- Sparks, Joe. "Total Distortion: Awards", JoeSparks.com, 1997? 2007. Accessed June 26, 2007.
- Salon.com review
- GameSpot review