''Cosmic Osmo and the Worlds Beyond the Mackerel'' is a
graphic adventure
An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and/or puzzle-solving. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based m ...
computer game for the
Macintosh
The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and software en ...
computer line (Plus, SE, SE/30, II Series, Classic, LC) created by
Cyan, Inc
Cyan, Inc., also known as Cyan Worlds, Inc., is an American video game developer. Founded as Cyan Productions by brothers Rand and Robyn Miller in 1987, the company is best known as the creator of the ''Myst'' series. The company is located in ...
. It was published in 1989 and won the 1990 Mac User's Editors' Choice Award for the "Best Recreational Program" category.
''
Spelunx
''Spelunx and the Caves of Mr. Seudo'' is an educational computer game intended for young children developed by Cyan (now Cyan Worlds) in 1991.
Gameplay and plot
Spelunx is a first-person point-and-click adventure game. It is structured as a c ...
'', 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
A platform game (often simplified as platformer and sometimes called a jump 'n' run game) is a sub-genre of action video games in which the core objective is to move the player character between points in an environment. Platform games are charac ...
style of gameplay.
Game mechanics
The game features a
point-and-click
Point and click are the actions of a computer user moving a pointer to a certain location on a screen (''pointing'') and then pressing a button on a mouse, usually the left button (''click''), or other pointing device. An example of point and ...
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 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 complex network of shortcuts exists between planets and scenes. The game, being presented in first-person view, enables shifts from the
macroscopic
The macroscopic scale is the length scale on which objects or phenomena are large enough to be visible with the naked eye, without magnifying optical instruments. It is the opposite of microscopic.
Overview
When applied to physical phenomena a ...
to the
microscopic
The microscopic scale () is the scale of objects and events smaller than those that can easily be seen by the naked eye, requiring a lens or microscope to see them clearly. In physics, the microscopic scale is sometimes regarded as the scale be ...
level. Most of the shortcuts are found at the microscopic level: through a water drain or a mouse-hole, for example.
Development
''Cosmic Osmo'' was created by brothers
Rand
The RAND Corporation (from the phrase "research and development") is an American nonprofit global policy think tank created in 1948 by Douglas Aircraft Company to offer research and analysis to the United States Armed Forces. It is finan ...
and
Robyn Miller
Robyn Charles Miller (born August 6, 1966) is the co-founder of Cyan Worlds (originally Cyan) with brother Rand Miller. He served as co-designer of the popular computer game ''Myst'', which held the title of best-selling computer game from it ...
, who went on to form the company
Cyan and develop the best-selling adventure game ''
Myst
''Myst'' is a graphic adventure/puzzle video game designed by the Miller brothers, Robyn and Rand. It was developed by Cyan, Inc., published by Broderbund, and initially released for the Macintosh in 1993. In the game, the player's charact ...
''.
It was created, and runs, using
HyperCard
HyperCard is a software application and development kit for Apple Macintosh and Apple IIGS computers. It is among the first successful hypermedia systems predating the World Wide Web.
HyperCard combines a flat-file database with a graphical, f ...
. Animated portions were made using
MacroMind VideoWorks,
a linear animation program that later became
Macromedia Director
Adobe Director (formerly Macromedia Director, MacroMind Director, and MacroMind VideoWorks) was a multimedia application authoring platform created by Macromedia and managed by Adobe Systems until its discontinuation.
Director was the primary edi ...
. An XCMD plug-in enabled VideoWorks animated sprites to be displayed with an
alpha mask on top or behind HyperCard's graphic layer.
It was first published as simply ''Cosmic Osmo'' and required a hard drive for installation. A later enhanced CD-ROM version added more worlds, sounds, and music, and was titled ''Cosmic Osmo and the Worlds Beyond the Mackerel''. Both versions were originally published by Activision, but through a breach of contract the rights reverted back to Cyan.
Mark H. DeForest (software engineer and later CTO at Cyan) in December 1995 indicated a colorized version was in development, noting, "...
tis taking a fair amount of work, but is looking like it will be well worth it."
A port of the game was reportedly developed for the
SNES-CD
The Super NES CD-ROM System (commonly shortened as the SNES-CD), known as Super Famicom CD-ROM Adapter in Japan, is an unreleased video game peripheral for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). The add-on built upon the functionality ...
, 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
Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ser ...
version of the game, to be released via
GameTap
GameTap was an online video game service established by Turner Broadcasting System (TBS) in 2005. It provided users with classic arcade video games and game-related video content. The service was acquired by French online video game service Met ...
, 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, Inc., also known as Cyan Worlds, Inc., is an American video game developer. Founded as Cyan Productions by brothers Rand and Robyn Miller in 1987, the company is best known as the creator of the ''Myst'' series. The company is located in ...
titles ''The Manhole: Masterpiece Edition'', ''Myst: Masterpiece Edition'', ''realMyst'', ''Riven: The Sequel to Myst'', ''URU: Complete Chronicles'', and ''Spelunx and the Caves of Mr. Seudo''. Originally only available for Macintosh computers, ''Cosmic Osmo'' is now only for Windows PC systems.
Goals and artistic design
''Cosmic Osmo'' has a style of gameplay similar to Cyan's previous game, ''
The Manhole
''The Manhole'' is an adventure video game in which the player opens a manhole and reveals a gigantic beanstalk, leading to fantastic worlds.
Summary
The game was first released on floppy disks in 1988 by Cyan, Inc. (now ''Cyan Worlds'') and d ...
''. There is no goal, no system of scoring
points, and no items for players to keep in inventory. Players can be said to have "finished" the game if they have 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 often considered to be a children's game,
[ The title of the article might sway readers to think that way.] it was never advertised as such, and 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.
Music and sound
The game features digitized voices and sounds that were played by
HyperCard
HyperCard is a software application and development kit for Apple Macintosh and Apple IIGS computers. It is among the first successful hypermedia systems predating the World Wide Web.
HyperCard combines a flat-file database with a graphical, f ...
's sound commands, and 18 tracks of original
CD-DA
Compact Disc Digital Audio (CDDA or CD-DA), also known as Digital Audio Compact Disc or simply as Audio CD, is the standard format for audio compact discs. The standard is defined in the ''Red Book'', one of a series of Rainbow Books (named ...
background music on the
Hybrid CD
A hybrid disc is a disc, such as CD-ROM or Blu-ray, which contains multiple types of data which can be used differently on different devices. These include CD-ROM music albums containing video files viewable on a personal computer, or feature fil ...
version, much of which was written by Shep Lovick and Robyn Miller and features Kyle Stroud prominently on the saxophone.
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
A platform game (often simplified as platformer and sometimes called a jump 'n' run game) is a sub-genre of action video games in which the core objective is to move the player character between points in an environment. Platform games are charac ...
instead of a click-through adventure.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Cosmic Osmo And The Worlds Beyond The Mackerel
1990 video games
Adventure games
Cyan Worlds games
Classic Mac OS games
Video games developed in the United States
Video games about extraterrestrial life
Video games scored by Robyn Miller
Windows games