Rama (1995)
Genres:Adventure
Themes:Science fiction
Game modes:Single player
Story:Two centuries in the future , arrives unexpectedly to our solar system a huge ship -shaped cylinder, from the confines of space . Christening Rama , by those who discover the huge cylinder, confronts humanity with the existence of a much higher intelligence to human , able to build a ship of such dimensions. It quickly decided to send an expedition to explore the ship and find out what your destiny and purpose. The twelve astronauts group chosen enters Rama and the mission commander dies mysteriously . This is where the player comes in as a substitute astronaut to join the team . The objectives of the player are exploring Rama and answer three crucial questions : Why is Rama the way to Earth? Whence ? Who conceived this immense ship cylindrical ?Show more
Vote to bring this game to GOG and help preserve it.1 969
My parents bought me this (along with the novel, Rama II) many years ago. As a young kid, exploring the alien ship was equal parts fascinating and frightening. Approaching it again later, I actually got somewhere, avoiding all the trash bots and roaming centipedes to a puzzle terminal. It was relatively simple - you just have to do maths to progress. The twist? You don't do it with numbers, you instead have colours. This blew my mind at the time, and opened me up to try and understand things from, literally, an alien perspective.
Did I ever fall in love with this game as a teenager. The story is basically the same as RAMA II by Gentry Lee (NOT Arthur C. Clarke!), The game is better because the player explores the ship... instead of following a bunch of pathetic characters and their petty personal dramas.
The puzzles are all inventory and logic. I remember the math machine puzzles. Oh God do I remember them! There's a section that teaches you how two alien number systems work, challenging you to solve basic arithmetic in base-8 and base-16.
I stayed up late at night figuring out these number systems by hand, created my own method of counting like an alien and how each number would be represented, and I won! I got through every single one of those puzzles and I was proud!
...until I later read the "alien" number systems were actually hexadecimal and octal, and all I had to do was write down the equations and go to Windows' scientific calculator. I am still proud I figured it out by hand.
Alas RAMA has a critical flaw: the last 25% is on a time limit! If you don't set everything up right from the start, odds are you will save your game in an unwinnable state. I actually had to go through the game twice before I was able to reach the end scene with enough time to disarm the bomb. It's impossible to enjoy the wonder of exploring this alien environment with a ticking clock telling you to hurry up, and this keeps the game from being great.
In spite of this flaw, it's still a good game. Logical puzzles, mysterious environment to explore, awe-inspiring visuals and very cool aliens. The hall of Avians is humbling and made me feel honored to be there. It deserves a rerelease.
I had a memory of this games trailer, had watched in many times on a demo disc when I was younger. but had forgotten the name years ago. Had been hoping to work out what it was again, and here it is, and while it has aged, it still looks very interesting and deserves a rescue.
AKA How I spent my summer vacation learning to think in base 16.
The little bits where Arthur C. Clarke pops up to admonish you for dying in some particularly foolish way are a hidden treasure.
This game is one of those beautiful gems. I picked this up shortly after meeting Gentry Lee when he spoke at my college. I'd love to see this title on GOG because it is such a gem. I've read all the books in the main Rama series, and have the last one of those books, which was signed by Gentry Lee himself.
I remember playing this as a kid. I never was able to finish it, but I always wanted to. I loved the setting, and I loved the challenge of it. I actually still have the old CD's My dad gave them to me when we found it because he knew I liked the game. I remember I found a patch on the web somewhere to get it to run on modern computers and booted it up. but that was back with windows 8, and it would crash still and wasn't the most reliable patch. I haven't tried again.
I would love to get another chance to conquer it.
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