''Ripper'' is a 1996
interactive movie
Across the many fields concerned with interactivity, including information science, computer science, human-computer interaction, communication, and industrial design, there is little agreement over the meaning of the term "interactivity", but mo ...
point-and-click adventure game
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 me ...
developed and published by
Take-Two Interactive
Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. is an American video game holding company based in New York City and founded by Ryan Brant in September 1993.
The company owns two major publishing labels, Rockstar Games and 2K, which operate internal g ...
for
MS-DOS
MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few ope ...
and
Macintosh
The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and ...
. The cast includes
Christopher Walken
Christopher Walken (born Ronald Walken; March 31, 1943) is an American actor. Prolific in film, television and on stage, Walken is the recipient of numerous accolades including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Awar ...
,
Paul Giamatti
Paul Edward Valentine Giamatti (; born June 6, 1967) is an American actor and film producer. He first garnered attention for his breakout role in '' Private Parts'' as Kenny "Pig Vomit" Rushton, leading to supporting roles in ''Saving Private R ...
,
Karen Allen
Karen Jane Allen (born October 5, 1951) is an American film and stage actress. After making her film debut in ''Animal House'' (1978), she portrayed Marion Ravenwood opposite Harrison Ford in '' Raiders of the Lost Ark'' (1981), a role she lat ...
,
Burgess Meredith
Oliver Burgess Meredith (November 16, 1907 – September 9, 1997) was an American actor and filmmaker whose career encompassed theater, film, and television.
Active for more than six decades, Meredith has been called "a virtuosic actor" and "on ...
(in his final performance before his death the following year),
David Patrick Kelly
David Patrick Kelly (born January 23, 1951) is an American actor, musician and lyricist who has appeared in numerous films and television series. He is best known for his role as the main antagonist, Luther, in the cult film '' The Warriors'' (19 ...
,
Ossie Davis
Raiford Chatman "Ossie" Davis (December 18, 1917 – February 4, 2005) was an American actor, director, writer, and activist. He was married to Ruby Dee, with whom he frequently performed, until his death. He and his wife were named to the NAACP ...
, and
John Rhys-Davies
John Rhys-Davies (born 5 May 1944) is a Welsh actor best known for portraying Sallah in the ''Indiana Jones'' franchise and Gimli in ''The Lord of the Rings'' trilogy. His other roles include Michael Malone in the 1993 series ''The Untoucha ...
. It also uses the
Blue Öyster Cult
Blue Öyster Cult ( ; sometimes abbreviated BÖC or BOC) is an American Rock music, rock band formed on Long Island in Stony Brook, New York, in 1967, and best known for the singles "(Don't Fear) The Reaper", "Burnin' for You", and "Godzilla ( ...
song "
(Don't Fear) The Reaper
"(Don't Fear) The Reaper" is a song by American rock band Blue Öyster Cult from the band's 1976 album ''Agents of Fortune.'' The song, written and sung by lead guitarist Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser, deals with eternal love and the inevitabili ...
". The villain of the game is chosen at
random
In common usage, randomness is the apparent or actual lack of pattern or predictability in events. A random sequence of events, symbols or steps often has no :wikt:order, order and does not follow an intelligible pattern or combination. Ind ...
from the four main characters. A limited number of the clues and puzzles, plus a single line of dialogue in the ending, change according to the villain's identity.
In 1996 home ports for the
Saturn
Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant with an average radius of about nine and a half times that of Earth. It has only one-eighth the average density of Earth; h ...
and
PlayStation
is a video gaming brand that consists of five home video game consoles, two handhelds, a media center, and a smartphone, as well as an online service and multiple magazines. The brand is produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment, a divisi ...
were announced, but did not ship. ''Ripper'' is the second of the three Take-Two developed
full-motion video
Full-motion video (FMV) is a video game narration technique that relies upon pre-recorded video files (rather than sprites, vectors, or 3D models) to display action in the game. While many games feature FMVs as a way to present information duri ...
-based adventure games, the other two being ''
Hell: A Cyberpunk Thriller'' and ''
Black Dahlia
Elizabeth Short (July 29, 1924 – January 14–15, 1947), known posthumously as the Black Dahlia, was an American woman found murdered in the Leimert Park neighborhood of Los Angeles on January 15, 1947. Her case became highly publicized ow ...
''.
Plot
''Ripper'' takes place in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
in the year 2040. It opens with the investigation of the recent murder of Renee Stein, the third victim of a
serial killer
A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more persons,A
*
*
*
* with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant period of time between them. While most authorities set a threshold of three ...
known as "The Ripper", largely out of the
modus operandi
A ''modus operandi'' (often shortened to M.O.) is someone's habits of working, particularly in the context of business or criminal investigations, but also more generally. It is a Latin phrase, approximately translated as "mode (or manner) of op ...
similarity to
Jack the Ripper
Jack the Ripper was an unidentified serial killer active in and around the impoverished Whitechapel district of London, England, in the autumn of 1888. In both criminal case files and the contemporaneous journalistic accounts, the killer wa ...
. The player assumes the role of Jake Quinlan, a reporter for the Virtual Herald, whom The Ripper sends messages to detailing his murders
(an act attributed to Jack the Ripper, although no letters have been proven to come from him). Along with the police (whose investigation is headed by Detective Vincent Magnotta), Quinlan is seeking The Ripper's true identity.
After investigating Renee Stein's murder, Quinlan receives a message from The Ripper, who warns Quinlan that his girlfriend, Catherine Powell, will be the next victim, as she has gotten too close to discovering his identity. Quinlan manages to find Powell still alive, but in a coma "deeper than anyone thought possible." Cybersurgeon Claire Burton at the Meta-Cognition Center of the
Tribeca
Tribeca (), originally written as TriBeCa, is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan in New York City. Its name is a syllabic abbreviation of "Triangle Below Canal Street". The "triangle" (more accurately a quadrilateral) is bounded by Canal Stre ...
Center Hospital manages to retrieve a distorted image of Powell's attacker, but requires additional information from Quinlan to make it clearer. (This is also a reference to Jack the Ripper, as the police hypothesized that they might be able to get an image of the killer from the
retina
The retina (from la, rete "net") is the innermost, light-sensitive layer of tissue of the eye of most vertebrates and some molluscs. The optics of the eye create a focused two-dimensional image of the visual world on the retina, which then ...
s of the victims.) He provides this through investigating into what Powell was on to in her investigation and homes in on three possible
suspect
In law enforcement jargon, a suspect is a known person accused or suspected of committing a crime. Police and reporters in the United States often use the word suspect as a jargon when referring to the perpetrator of the offense (perp in dated U ...
s for The Ripper's murders. In order to transmit this information into Powell's brain directly, he enlists the help of Joey Falconetti, a
hacker
A hacker is a person skilled in information technology who uses their technical knowledge to achieve a goal or overcome an obstacle, within a computerized system by non-standard means. Though the term ''hacker'' has become associated in popu ...
who specializes in
interfacing directly with the human brain.
Quinlan's investigation leads him to discover that all of The Ripper's victims and all of those associated with the investigation of The Ripper (except Quinlan himself) were involved with an old gaming group known as the Web Runners, who played a game based on the Jack the Ripper mystery. The last session of this game somehow caused one of the players to die in real life. The player that died happened to be Catherine Powell's mother. Assistance from a
pathologist
Pathology is the study of the causal, causes and effects of disease or injury. The word ''pathology'' also refers to the study of disease in general, incorporating a wide range of biology research fields and medical practices. However, when us ...
named Vic Farley reveals that The Ripper's murders were done by placing a code into a victim's brain while in
cyberspace
Cyberspace is a concept describing a widespread interconnected digital technology. "The expression dates back from the first decade of the diffusion of the internet. It refers to the online world as a world 'apart', as distinct from everyday rea ...
that caused their internal body pressure to rise to a point of explosion, which Farley experiences immediately after providing his explanation. Quinlan also finds a cyberspace weapon developed by a murdered cyberarchitect named Hamilton Wofford, designed specifically to kill The Ripper inside a virtual recreation of the historic
Whitechapel
Whitechapel is a district in East London and the future administrative centre of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is a part of the East End of London, east of Charing Cross. Part of the historic county of Middlesex, the area formed ...
district of London, where the Jack the Ripper murders took place. After assembling the weapon and gathering the necessary protection from The Ripper's weapon, Quinlan enters cyberspace, kills The Ripper, and manages to escape the virtual Whitechapel in time to escape its destruction.
The Ripper can be one of four possible suspects: Joey Falconetti, Claire Burton, Vincent Magnotta, or Catherine Powell. With each
play-through, certain clues and actual identity of The Ripper vary, though the bulk of the story is unchanged, and clues indicating the guilt of all four suspects will appear regardless of who the killer is. For instance, Catherine Powell experiences mysterious surges in
brain wave
''Brain Wave'' is a science fiction novel by American writer Poul Anderson, first published in serial form in ''Space Science Fiction'' in 1953, and then as a novel in 1954. Anderson had said that he could consider it one of his top five books. Th ...
activity that coincide with all the Ripper's murders regardless of whether or not she actually is the Ripper, and no alternative explanation for these surges is provided. However, the changes in the game's story and puzzles are limited to the game's
third act
Third Act is the third full-length album by the Swedish/Danish band Evil Masquerade.
Track listing
All songs written by Henrik Flyman.
Black Ravens Cry was released as a single in 2012 by Dark Minstrel Music
Personnel
;Evil Masquerade
*Hen ...
- after Farley's death.
Cast
*
Christopher Walken
Christopher Walken (born Ronald Walken; March 31, 1943) is an American actor. Prolific in film, television and on stage, Walken is the recipient of numerous accolades including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Awar ...
as Detective Vince Magnotta; a violent police officer with a romantic interest in Clare Burton and a vendetta against Falconetti. When Catherine's mother died during their last Ripper game, Magnotta arrested Falconetti for the murder. Magnotta is convinced that Falconetti is the Ripper, but his obsession may simply be a ruse to cover the fact that Magnotta himself is the Ripper. Magnotta may also be eager to frame Falconetti as the Ripper so that he can collect a large bounty for solving the case. Over the course of the investigation, Magnotta becomes increasingly more hostile towards Quinlan, believing him to be the Ripper due to the circumstances of Quinlan's encounters with the Ripper and their victims.
*
Burgess Meredith
Oliver Burgess Meredith (November 16, 1907 – September 9, 1997) was an American actor and filmmaker whose career encompassed theater, film, and television.
Active for more than six decades, Meredith has been called "a virtuosic actor" and "on ...
as Hamilton Wofford / Covington Wofford; two brothers that live on the outskirts of New York City. Hamilton was a Cyber-Architect who built virtual worlds based on historic locations. Hamilton was hired by the Ripper to build a replica of Whitechapel. Hamilton is murdered prior to the start of the game, but Quinlan eventually finds an AI created by Hamilton that provides him with critical information. Covington- in his brother's absence- is a recluse and seems to have gradually lost his grip on sanity.
*
Karen Allen
Karen Jane Allen (born October 5, 1951) is an American film and stage actress. After making her film debut in ''Animal House'' (1978), she portrayed Marion Ravenwood opposite Harrison Ford in '' Raiders of the Lost Ark'' (1981), a role she lat ...
as Doctor Clare Burton; a brilliant, but seemingly cold and distant doctor that specializes in the human brain. Burton is the object of affection of both Magnotta and Falconetti, both of whom have made Burton's life chaotic. Burton arouses suspicion of being the Ripper when she appears to stall treating Catherine- the only surviving Ripper victim. It is later revealed that Burton invented the weapon that the Ripper uses in his murders. Burton claims that the weapon was stolen, but whether this is true depends on whether Burton is the Ripper or not.
*
David Patrick Kelly
David Patrick Kelly (born January 23, 1951) is an American actor, musician and lyricist who has appeared in numerous films and television series. He is best known for his role as the main antagonist, Luther, in the cult film '' The Warriors'' (19 ...
as Joey Falconetti; a brilliant, though seemingly violent and disturbed computer hacker. Falconetti immediately draws suspicion of being the Ripper with his fascination with knife collecting and his fascination with the Ripper himself. Falconetti was married to Clare Burton, but the two divorced after Magnotta arrested Falconetti. Joey now has a vendetta for Magnotta and Burton, though he still has feelings for the latter.
*
Scott Cohen as Jake Quinlan; an investigative reporter who is investigating and writing about the Ripper murders. Quinlan regularly receives letters and messages from the Ripper, and Quinlan is forced into chasing the Ripper when his assistant and lover- Catherine Powell- is attacked by the Ripper. Quinlan is not well versed in the workings of cyberspace; thus the player must learn how the technology of the game world works as Quinlan learns it himself.
*
Ossie Davis
Raiford Chatman "Ossie" Davis (December 18, 1917 – February 4, 2005) was an American actor, director, writer, and activist. He was married to Ruby Dee, with whom he frequently performed, until his death. He and his wife were named to the NAACP ...
as Ben Dodds; the editor of the ''Virtual Herald'' whom Quinlan confides in.
*
John Rhys-Davies
John Rhys-Davies (born 5 May 1944) is a Welsh actor best known for portraying Sallah in the ''Indiana Jones'' franchise and Gimli in ''The Lord of the Rings'' trilogy. His other roles include Michael Malone in the 1993 series ''The Untoucha ...
as Vigo Haman; a mobster that has valuable information regarding Clare Burton.
*
Tahnee Welch
Latanne Rene "Tahnee" Welch (born December 26, 1961) is an American model and actress and is the daughter of the late actress Raquel Welch.
Biography
Welch was born on December 26, 1961, in San Diego, California, the daughter of actress Raquel ...
as Catherine Powell; Quinlan's co-worker and lover. Powell begins investigating the Ripper behind Quinlan's back, hoping to take the story and launch her own career as a reporter. Powell is comatose for most of the game, but it is discovered late in the game that her brain activity spikes each day that the Ripper kills; making Catherine a viable suspect. The suspicion that Catherine may be the Ripper is heightened when it's discovered that her mother was killed in the last Ripper Web Runners game, and Catherine was aware of this fact.
*
Jimmie Walker
James Carter Walker Jr. (born June 25, 1947) is an American actor and comedian. Walker portrayed James Evans Jr. ("J.J."), the older son of Florida and James Evans Sr., on the CBS television series ''Good Times'', which ran from 1974 to 1979, ...
as Soap Beatty; a computer hacker who is one of Catherine's primary sources in her investigation of the Ripper. He gives the player much insight into the computer technology of the game.
* Steven Randazzo as Sgt. Lou Brannon; a rare non-corrupt cop that gives the player information about Magnotta's suspicious activities.
* Peter Boyden as Vic Farley; a friendly pathologist who is trying to figure out how the Ripper commits his murders.
*
Paul Giamatti
Paul Edward Valentine Giamatti (; born June 6, 1967) is an American actor and film producer. He first garnered attention for his breakout role in '' Private Parts'' as Kenny "Pig Vomit" Rushton, leading to supporting roles in ''Saving Private R ...
as Doctor Bud Cable; a doctor tending to Catherine Powell who keeps the player up to date about Catherine's condition when Doctor Burton stalls treating her.
* MacIntyre Dixon as Gambit Nelson; a cyberspace entrepreneur who gives the player critical information about Falconetti.
* Lianna Pai as Kashi Yamamoto; A current Web Runner who gives the player information about the Runners' history.
*
David Thornton as Twig; an assistant that maintains Falconetti's computer hacking equipment.
* Kira Arne as Vivien Santiago; the receptionist at the hospital who flirts with Quinlan and informs Quinlan of suspicious activities at the hospital.
* William Seymour as Bob Eppels; a pathologist who replaces Farley after Farley is fired. Suspiciously, Eppels is seemingly under instruction not to give Quinlan any information, though he slips up and tells Quinlan secrets about the hospital.
*
Richard Bright as Dr. Karl Stasiak; a forensic photographer who is a trusted source of Quinlan's. Unfortunately Karl gets freaked out by the Ripper's attacks and leaves New York, depriving Quinlan of a trusted source in the police department.
* Phyllis Bash as Prof. Lillian Bech; a Professor who sheds some light on Clare Burton's past. She first informs Quinlan of the Web Runners' existence.
Development
Considerable effort was focused on the game's full motion video sequences. Paying the game's slew of big-name actors cost nearly 25% of the game's entire budget, and
Phil Parmet was brought on to direct the video segments.
Writer/lead designer F. J. Lennon commented, "The whole industry wants to crucify FMV, people claim FMV doesn't belong in game, but if it's done professionally, I think it can work."
The game engine was created from scratch. It can change resolution between 640x480 and 320x200 on the fly.
''Ripper'' had a budget of , of which roughly a quarter paid actors, and was in development for two years. It was launched in February 1996.
Reception
Take 2 announced shipments of 160,000 copies to retailers during the game's debut week, and called it "our biggest game to date".
According to Take 2, the game sold above 150,000 units by the end of October 1996 and earned 28.7% of all company revenue during that fiscal year,
the total of which was $12.5 million. The company's income in that period was $349,074.
Arinn Dembo
Arinn Dembo (born February 3, 1970) is an American author currently living and writing in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Dembo is best known for her work with Vancouver-based Kerberos Productions, where she was lead writer and has worked on ...
of
CNET Gamecenter
''CNET'' (short for "Computer Network") is an American media website that publishes reviews, news, articles, blogs, podcasts, and videos on technology and consumer electronics globally. ''CNET'' originally produced content for radio and televi ...
wrote, "
ow sales, unfortunately, quickly knocked
'Ripper''off retail shelves."
The game received an average score of 71.50% at
GameRankings
GameRankings was a video gaming review aggregator that was founded in 1999 and owned by CBS Interactive. It indexed over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 video games. GameRankings was discontinued in December 2019, with its staff bei ...
, based on an aggregate of 4 reviews.
A reviewer for ''
Next Generation'' commented, "One minute the game believes it's a graphic adventure, the next it's a movie, and the next it's a puzzle game. If any one of these aspects would be perfected, it could be a gamer's delight. As it stands, the game is mediocre in each category." He specifically criticized that the characters "are so overdone it's just plain funny" and the first-person sequences can't be bypassed, forcing the player to watch the same graphics every time they backtrack.
Jeff Sengstack of ''NewMedia'' magazine wrote that ''Ripper'' "meets, even exceeds, its pre-release hype", and summarized it as "an engaging horror mystery with immense depth." However, he found fault with the video compression and difficulty.
References
External links
Official site(archived)
*
*
{{Jack the Ripper media
1996 video games
Cancelled PlayStation (console) games
Cancelled Sega Saturn games
Cyberpunk video games
Detective video games
DOS games
Fiction set in 2040
Full motion video based games
Interactive movie video games
Classic Mac OS games
Point-and-click adventure games
Single-player video games
Take-Two Interactive games
Video games about Jack the Ripper
Video games about virtual reality
Video games developed in the United States
Video games set in the 2040s
Video games with alternate endings