Sentinel Returns
Encyclopedia
Sentinel Returns is a video game developed by Hookstone
, produced by No-Name Games and published by Sony
(under the Psygnosis label) in 1998, for PC
and PlayStation. It is the sequel to The Sentinel
by Geoff Crammond
and features 651 levels, a multiplayer mode and a soundtrack (titled "Earth/Air") composed by John Carpenter
and arranged by Gary McKill.
The PC version has native support limited to a software display mode and an accelerated Glide
mode, because in 1998, 3DFX
cards were the de facto
standard for gaming 3D graphics. However, modern computers can run the game in accelerated mode with the wrapper
s dgVoodoo or OpenGlide, which translate Glide calls respectively into Direct3D
or OpenGL
calls.
This game looks very different from its predecessor. While in The Sentinel the levels were bright and colorful, in Sentinel Returns they are dark and gloomy, with flashes of light being emitted when an object is created or absorbed, and the mouse pointer
dynamically lighting the world. The game has a general "hallucinated" look: the skies are made out of contrasting streaks of color; the trees look like sperms
; the boulders breathe and have a sphincter
on the top; the sentinels and sentries are hybrids of flesh and metal; the sentinel stands are covered with skin and have four vertebral column
s protruding from the corners; the "specimen" representing the living part of the synthoid resembles a hydatidiform mole
, and it squirms and lets out a shriek when injected with a needle.
Height is gained by placing a boulder on any visible square, and putting a Synthoid on the boulder. The player may then transfer consciousness to the new Synthoid, and absorb the old one. Stacks of boulders of any height may be created, if the player has enough energy. In order to absorb the Sentinel, the player must create a stack of boulders of sufficient height that the Synthoid on top can look down on the Sentinel's platform. When the Sentinel has been absorbed, the player may no longer absorb any energy from the landscape, although objects may be created as normal.
In later levels, the Sentinel is assisted by a number of Sentries. They behave exactly like the Sentinel, but absorbing them is not necessary to complete the level. Unlike the Sentinel, the Sentries do not stand on a platform but on ordinary squares. Attention must also be paid to nearby trees: if the Sentinel or Sentry cannot see the square the Synthoid is standing on, but its head is visible and there are trees in the vicinity, it may transform one of them into a Meanie, which will force the Synthoid to hyperspace and lose 3 units of energy. If the Meanie itself cannot see the player's square after a full rotation, it will turn back into a tree and the Sentinel or Sentry will resume rotation.
The rotation of the Sentinel and the Sentries is slow and predictable. However, if there are many Sentries, there will be few safe locations anywhere on the landscape. If either the Sentinel or the Sentries come across a source of energy (boulders or a synthoid), their rotation stops while they absorb the energy, one unit at a time. Meanwhile, to keep the total energy of the landscape constant, a tree is created randomly on the landscape for each absorbed unit of energy.
List of objects that can exist in the Sentinel world:
A level is won by absorbing the Sentinel off its platform, creating a new Synthoid in the place of the Sentinel, transferring the consciousness to it and hyperspacing to a new level.
The number of levels that are skipped between two that are played depends on the amount of energy the player has accumulated when he jumps into hyperspace: absorbing less than 50% of the total energy present in a level will skip a level; absorbing between 50% and 69% will skip two; absorbing between 70% to 89% will skip three; absorbing between 90% and 100% will skip four.
Although their gameplay is almost identical, the two versions have several differences in their graphical look.
Hookstone
Hookstone was a UK video game development group, active from 1994 until ~1998.The group members were Jason McGann, Peter Tattersall, Cliff Davies, Ian Bowden, Dave Box, Justin Johnson, Gordon Hall, James Smart and Chris White....
, produced by No-Name Games and published by Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
(under the Psygnosis label) in 1998, for PC
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
and PlayStation. It is the sequel to The Sentinel
The Sentinel (computer game)
The Sentinel is a computer game created by Geoff Crammond, published by Firebird in 1986 for the BBC Micro and converted to the C64 , Amstrad CPC , ZX Spectrum , Atari ST, Amiga and PC . It was released in the US as The Sentry...
by Geoff Crammond
Geoff Crammond
Geoff Crammond is a computer game designer and programmer who specialises in motor racing games. A former defense industry systems engineer, he claims to have had little interest in motor racing before programming his first racing game back in 1984, but he holds a physics degree, which may explain...
and features 651 levels, a multiplayer mode and a soundtrack (titled "Earth/Air") composed by John Carpenter
John Carpenter
John Howard Carpenter is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, editor, composer, and occasional actor. Although Carpenter has worked in numerous film genres in his four-decade career, his name is most commonly associated with horror and science fiction.- Early life :Carpenter was born...
and arranged by Gary McKill.
The PC version has native support limited to a software display mode and an accelerated Glide
Glide API
Glide is a 3D graphics API developed by 3dfx Interactive for their Voodoo Graphics 3D accelerator cards. Although it originally started as a proprietary API, it was later open sourced by 3dfx. It was dedicated to gaming performance, supporting geometry and texture mapping primarily, in data...
mode, because in 1998, 3DFX
3dfx
3dfx Interactive was a company that specialized in the manufacturing of 3D graphics processing units and, later, graphics cards. It was a pioneer in the field for several years in the late 1990s until 2000 when it underwent one of the most high-profile demises in the history of the PC industry...
cards were the de facto
De facto
De facto is a Latin expression that means "concerning fact." In law, it often means "in practice but not necessarily ordained by law" or "in practice or actuality, but not officially established." It is commonly used in contrast to de jure when referring to matters of law, governance, or...
standard for gaming 3D graphics. However, modern computers can run the game in accelerated mode with the wrapper
Wrapper
Wrapper generally refers to a type of packaging, such as a flat sheet made out of paper, cellophane or plastic to enclose an object.Wrapper may also refer to:* Wrapper , a woman's garment which is worn over nightwear or lingerie...
s dgVoodoo or OpenGlide, which translate Glide calls respectively into Direct3D
Direct3D
Direct3D is part of Microsoft's DirectX application programming interface . Direct3D is available for Microsoft Windows operating systems , and for other platforms through the open source software Wine. It is the base for the graphics API on the Xbox and Xbox 360 console systems...
or OpenGL
OpenGL
OpenGL is a standard specification defining a cross-language, cross-platform API for writing applications that produce 2D and 3D computer graphics. The interface consists of over 250 different function calls which can be used to draw complex three-dimensional scenes from simple primitives. OpenGL...
calls.
This game looks very different from its predecessor. While in The Sentinel the levels were bright and colorful, in Sentinel Returns they are dark and gloomy, with flashes of light being emitted when an object is created or absorbed, and the mouse pointer
Cursor (computers)
In computing, a cursor is an indicator used to show the position on a computer monitor or other display device that will respond to input from a text input or pointing device. The flashing text cursor may be referred to as a caret in some cases...
dynamically lighting the world. The game has a general "hallucinated" look: the skies are made out of contrasting streaks of color; the trees look like sperms
Spermatozoon
A spermatozoon is a motile sperm cell, or moving form of the haploid cell that is the male gamete. A spermatozoon joins an ovum to form a zygote...
; the boulders breathe and have a sphincter
Sphincter
A sphincter is an anatomical structure, or a circular muscle, that normally maintains constriction of a natural body passage or orifice and which relaxes as required by normal physiological functioning...
on the top; the sentinels and sentries are hybrids of flesh and metal; the sentinel stands are covered with skin and have four vertebral column
Vertebral column
In human anatomy, the vertebral column is a column usually consisting of 24 articulating vertebrae, and 9 fused vertebrae in the sacrum and the coccyx. It is situated in the dorsal aspect of the torso, separated by intervertebral discs...
s protruding from the corners; the "specimen" representing the living part of the synthoid resembles a hydatidiform mole
Hydatidiform mole
Molar pregnancy is an abnormal form of pregnancy, wherein a non-viable, fertilized egg implants in the uterus, and thereby converts normal pregnancy processes into pathological ones. It is characterized by the presence of a hydatidiform mole...
, and it squirms and lets out a shriek when injected with a needle.
Game mechanics
Controlling Synthoids that are standing at a higher level is fundamental to the game, because only the objects which occupy a visible square can be interacted with (the player may absorb or create objects on a boulder if the sides can be seen). While doing so, the player must watch for the rotation of the Sentinel and be careful not to stand in an area which the Sentinel can see, or else it will start absorbing energy from the Synthoid, and when the energy is gone, the game is over.Height is gained by placing a boulder on any visible square, and putting a Synthoid on the boulder. The player may then transfer consciousness to the new Synthoid, and absorb the old one. Stacks of boulders of any height may be created, if the player has enough energy. In order to absorb the Sentinel, the player must create a stack of boulders of sufficient height that the Synthoid on top can look down on the Sentinel's platform. When the Sentinel has been absorbed, the player may no longer absorb any energy from the landscape, although objects may be created as normal.
In later levels, the Sentinel is assisted by a number of Sentries. They behave exactly like the Sentinel, but absorbing them is not necessary to complete the level. Unlike the Sentinel, the Sentries do not stand on a platform but on ordinary squares. Attention must also be paid to nearby trees: if the Sentinel or Sentry cannot see the square the Synthoid is standing on, but its head is visible and there are trees in the vicinity, it may transform one of them into a Meanie, which will force the Synthoid to hyperspace and lose 3 units of energy. If the Meanie itself cannot see the player's square after a full rotation, it will turn back into a tree and the Sentinel or Sentry will resume rotation.
The rotation of the Sentinel and the Sentries is slow and predictable. However, if there are many Sentries, there will be few safe locations anywhere on the landscape. If either the Sentinel or the Sentries come across a source of energy (boulders or a synthoid), their rotation stops while they absorb the energy, one unit at a time. Meanwhile, to keep the total energy of the landscape constant, a tree is created randomly on the landscape for each absorbed unit of energy.
List of objects that can exist in the Sentinel world:
- Tree (1 unit of energy)
- Meanie (1 unit of energy)
- Boulder (2 units of energy)
- Synthoid (3 units of energy)
- Sentry (3 units of energy)
- Sentinel (4 units of energy)
A level is won by absorbing the Sentinel off its platform, creating a new Synthoid in the place of the Sentinel, transferring the consciousness to it and hyperspacing to a new level.
The number of levels that are skipped between two that are played depends on the amount of energy the player has accumulated when he jumps into hyperspace: absorbing less than 50% of the total energy present in a level will skip a level; absorbing between 50% and 69% will skip two; absorbing between 70% to 89% will skip three; absorbing between 90% and 100% will skip four.
Game mechanics differences from the predecessor
- The action is faster and the movements (rotating the synthoid and transferring the consciousness from a synthoid to another) happen in real timeReal-time computer graphicsReal-time computer graphics is the subfield of computer graphics focused on producing and analyzing images in real time. The term is most often used in reference to interactive 3D computer graphics, typically using a GPU, with video games the most noticeable users...
. This allows the player to move much more quickly across the landscape and to complete a level in far less time. To counterbalance this, the Sentinels and Sentries (which have a FOV of 28 degrees) are able to absorb energy from the synthoid at a much greater rate. - By absorbing a sentry, a tree is created in a random square in the level.
- There are "only" 651 single player levels, while there were 10000 in the first episode. For this reason, it is only possible to skip up to 4 levels when one is finished. In particular, the player will skip: 4 levels by absorbing from 90% to 100% of the energy in the level; 3 by absorbing from 70% to 89% of energy in the level; 2 by absorbing from 50% to 69% of energy in the level; 1 by absorbing less than 50% of energy in the level.
- A multiplayer mode is present. To start a multiplayer match on the PC version, the host needs to set up the random creation of a level, choose a DirectPlayDirectPlayDirectPlay is part of Microsoft's DirectX API. DirectPlay is a network communication library intended for computer game development, although its general nature certainly allows it to be used for other purposes....
service provider, type a host name and a player name, and finally select "Host a Session". Every guest needs to select the same service provider and select "Join a Session". The goal of multiplayer mode is to race each other to the Sentinel; every player can teleport each other's synthoid to lower levels. The supported DirectPlay service providers are IPXIPXInternetwork Packet Exchange is the OSI-model Network layer protocol in the IPX/SPX protocol stack.The IPX/SPXM protocol stack is supported by Novell's NetWare network operating system. Because of Netware's popularity through the late 1980s into the mid 1990s, IPX became a popular internetworking...
, TCP/IP, modemModemA modem is a device that modulates an analog carrier signal to encode digital information, and also demodulates such a carrier signal to decode the transmitted information. The goal is to produce a signal that can be transmitted easily and decoded to reproduce the original digital data...
and serialSerial communicationsIn telecommunication and computer science, serial communication is the process of sending data one bit at a time, sequentially, over a communication channel or computer bus. This is in contrast to parallel communication, where several bits are sent as a whole, on a link with several parallel channels...
. - The game has two endings. To see the first one, the player must beat the 651st level. To see the second one, the player must beat every level, or "achieve 100% orchid", as this is expressed in the game.
Graphical differences between PC and PlayStation version
- The level selection and level loading screens are fully polygonal in the PC version, while they are made out of 2D elements in the PS1 version.
- The 3D models have more polygons in the PC version than in the PS1 version.
- The PC version has colored lights (although only with the hardware accelerated rendering), the PS1 version does not.
- The levels have different architectures in the two versions.
- The checkerboard patterns are more evident in the PS1 version, which has also rougher-looking slopes than the PC version.
- The skies have orbiting planets in the PS1 version, they do not in the PC version.
- When an object is created in the PC version, it appears abruptly. In the PS1 version, a seed (when a tree is created) or 2/3 "energy clusters" (when a boulder or a synthoid is created) fly to the selected square, while rotating polygons assemble into the object.
- When an object is absorbed in the PC version, it disappears abruptly and generates a number of "energy rings" which quickly disappear. In the PS1 version, it disassembles into rotating polygons, while a seed (when a tree is absorbed) or 2/3 "energy clusters" (when a boulder, a synthoid or a sentry is absorbed) fly to the player's POV.
- The explosion of the sentinel is seen from the player's POV in the PC version and as a non-interactive scene in the PS1 version.
- After a level has been beaten in the PC version, a vortex made of a spiral and a number of triangles appears above the sentinel stand; in the PS1 version it does not, but is mentioned anyway in the manual.
- In the level-ending hyperspace scene, in the PC version the POV looks up into the vortex, while it looks down toward the synthoid in the PS1 version.
External links
- Sentinel Returns at 3DGamers
- dgVoodoo site
- OpenGlide site