The Journeyman Project 2: Buried in Time
Encyclopedia
The Journeyman Project 2: Buried in Time is a computer game developed by Presto Studios
and is the second game in the Journeyman Project
series of computer adventure games.
, Buried in Time was a radical change from the original. It is noted for establishing Agent 5 (the player's character) as Gage Blackwood, which in the original Journeyman Project lacked basic personality features and even a name. It also featured greatly improved graphics and seamless animation as well as many live-action sequences. The PC version was programmed entirely in C++
for improved performance. A PlayStation
version was also prototyped, but never released.
, Gage Blackwood (once again controlled by the player) is visited by himself from ten years in the future. Someone has framed the future Gage for tampering with historical artifacts and it is up to the past Gage to visit the past and find evidence to clear his name. Meanwhile, the Symbiotry of Peaceful Beings is deliberating on Earth's monopoly on time travel technology and this latest trial threatens to close down the Temporal Security Agency
(TSA). After joining up with an interesting artificial intelligence being named Arthur, Gage visits locations such as the workshop of Leonardo da Vinci and the Mayan temple of Chichen Itza and eventually find the culprit, Michelle Visard, who is another TSA agent. Gage is kidnapped by her and taken to an old missile silo, where Arthur sacrifices himself to allow Gage to continue his mission. He eventually uncovers that another alien race, the Krynn, are behind the crimes and the framing of Gage, to further their own interests. Gage is able to stop the Krynn and save his future self, and is then mind-wiped
and sent back to his own time.
s, with the data organized to allow the least amount of disc-swapping possible. The disc breakup was as follows:
Macintosh Version:
Windows Version:
soon went out of business, and Presto Studios self-published the game until Red Orb Entertainment
picked up the distribution rights in 1998. Red Orb published the game until their eventual demise in 1999.
, were solved in a version 1.1 patch. This patch can still be downloaded from Brøderbund's.
When the game was released as part of The Journeyman Project Trilogy box set, Buried in Time was plagued by a manufacturing error that affected many of the box sets. The disc labeled as disc 2 actually contained the data for disc 3, making the game essentially unplayable. For a time, users could contact Red Orb's technical support department and get a replacement, but this practice has since been discontinued after Red Orb closed down. The game has since been rereleased through Good Old Games.
The reaction to the game was mostly positive. Just Adventure gave the game an "A+", saying "...this is one of the best games I’ve ever played. It impressed me from start to finish." Programmer in Black, while having a few gripes about the scoring system, finished his review with "I recommend this (game) highly."
However, the reaction was not completely positive. The small view window, a potentially cumbersome biochip system, and the overwhelming number of ways the player could meet an untimely end drew criticism from some reviewers, such as Adventure Gamers, who wrote in their three-and-a-half star review: "The first thing you'll invariably notice about the game is its tiny viewscreen...a very disappointing return of windowed gaming...Once again filling up another large portion of the screen is the elaborate interface. The first game's interface walked the fine line between complex and complicated, but the one used in Buried in Time is altogether unwieldy." Most of these problems were resolved in the next game in the series, The Journeyman Project 3: Legacy of Time
.
Presto Studios
Presto Studios was a computer game development company of the 1990s, especially famous for its award-winning The Journeyman Project series and the 2001 sequel to Cyan's hit Myst series, Myst III: Exile....
and is the second game in the Journeyman Project
Journeyman Project franchise
The Journeyman Project is a series of award-winning first-person science fiction adventure games, created by Presto Studios and released by various publishers, including Bandai, Sanctuary Woods, and Red Orb Entertainment.- Plot :...
series of computer adventure games.
Overview
Published in 1995 by Sanctuary WoodsSanctuary Woods
Sanctuary Woods Multimedia, Inc. was a multimedia developer and third-party game publisher. It was one of the early multimedia companies developing products for CD-ROM distribution. The founders, Brian Beninger and Toni Beninger, were both experienced technologists who saw the potential for...
, Buried in Time was a radical change from the original. It is noted for establishing Agent 5 (the player's character) as Gage Blackwood, which in the original Journeyman Project lacked basic personality features and even a name. It also featured greatly improved graphics and seamless animation as well as many live-action sequences. The PC version was programmed entirely in C++
C++
C++ is a statically typed, free-form, multi-paradigm, compiled, general-purpose programming language. It is regarded as an intermediate-level language, as it comprises a combination of both high-level and low-level language features. It was developed by Bjarne Stroustrup starting in 1979 at Bell...
for improved performance. A PlayStation
PlayStation
The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console first released by Sony Computer Entertainment in Japan on December 3, .The PlayStation was the first of the PlayStation series of consoles and handheld game devices. The PlayStation 2 was the console's successor in 2000...
version was also prototyped, but never released.
Story
As the story begins in the year 2318, six months after the events of the first gameThe Journeyman Project
The Journeyman Project is a time travel adventure computer game developed by Presto Studios.-Gameplay:The game features a first-person perspective. The protagonist sees a display, a rectangle shaped visor . This user interface helps to reduce the movie size and maintain relatively high frame rates...
, Gage Blackwood (once again controlled by the player) is visited by himself from ten years in the future. Someone has framed the future Gage for tampering with historical artifacts and it is up to the past Gage to visit the past and find evidence to clear his name. Meanwhile, the Symbiotry of Peaceful Beings is deliberating on Earth's monopoly on time travel technology and this latest trial threatens to close down the Temporal Security Agency
Temporal Security Agency
The Temporal Security Agency is a fictional organization from Presto Studios's Journeyman Project series.The fictional Temporal Security Annex was created in the early 24th century, shortly after the invention of the first time machine, in order to preserve the space-time continuum from the...
(TSA). After joining up with an interesting artificial intelligence being named Arthur, Gage visits locations such as the workshop of Leonardo da Vinci and the Mayan temple of Chichen Itza and eventually find the culprit, Michelle Visard, who is another TSA agent. Gage is kidnapped by her and taken to an old missile silo, where Arthur sacrifices himself to allow Gage to continue his mission. He eventually uncovers that another alien race, the Krynn, are behind the crimes and the framing of Gage, to further their own interests. Gage is able to stop the Krynn and save his future self, and is then mind-wiped
Mindwipe
For the Transformers character, see Mindwipe .Mindwipe is a technique used in some science fiction scenarios, where the subject's memories and personality are erased and replaced by new memories and personality more useful to those who are carrying out the mindwiping, or to their area's...
and sent back to his own time.
Disc Layout
The game shipped on three CD-ROMCD-ROM
A CD-ROM is a pre-pressed compact disc that contains data accessible to, but not writable by, a computer for data storage and music playback. The 1985 “Yellow Book” standard developed by Sony and Philips adapted the format to hold any form of binary data....
s, with the data organized to allow the least amount of disc-swapping possible. The disc breakup was as follows:
Macintosh Version:
- Disc 1: Krynn Vessel
- Disc 2: Gage Blackwood's Residence, Farnstein Space Laboratory, Missile Silo
- Disc 3: Chateau Gaillard, Leonardo da VinciLeonardo da VinciLeonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance...
's Workshop, Chichen ItzaChichen ItzaChichen Itza is a large pre-Columbian archaeological site built by the Maya civilization located in the northern center of the Yucatán Peninsula, in the Municipality of Tinúm, Yucatán state, present-day Mexico....
Windows Version:
- Disc 1: Farnstein Space Laboratory
- Disc 2: Gage Blackwood's Residence, Missile Silo, Krynn Vessel
- Disc 3: Chateau Gaillard, Leonardo da Vinci's Workshop, Chichen Itza
Publishing
Buried in Time was published by Sanctuary Woods upon its original release. However, Sanctuary WoodsSanctuary Woods
Sanctuary Woods Multimedia, Inc. was a multimedia developer and third-party game publisher. It was one of the early multimedia companies developing products for CD-ROM distribution. The founders, Brian Beninger and Toni Beninger, were both experienced technologists who saw the potential for...
soon went out of business, and Presto Studios self-published the game until Red Orb Entertainment
Red Orb Entertainment
Red Orb Entertainment was a division of the Brøderbund software company created to market its gaming titles, distinguishing them from its considerable library of edutainment titles, which it marketed to schools...
picked up the distribution rights in 1998. Red Orb published the game until their eventual demise in 1999.
Releases and bug fixes
The initial 1.0 release of Buried in Time included a notable glitch near the end of the game that prevented the player from getting a perfect score. This bug and other problems related to running under Windows 95Windows 95
Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented graphical user interface-based operating system. It was released on August 24, 1995 by Microsoft, and was a significant progression from the company's previous Windows products...
, were solved in a version 1.1 patch. This patch can still be downloaded from Brøderbund's.
When the game was released as part of The Journeyman Project Trilogy box set, Buried in Time was plagued by a manufacturing error that affected many of the box sets. The disc labeled as disc 2 actually contained the data for disc 3, making the game essentially unplayable. For a time, users could contact Red Orb's technical support department and get a replacement, but this practice has since been discontinued after Red Orb closed down. The game has since been rereleased through Good Old Games.
Critical response
However, the reaction was not completely positive. The small view window, a potentially cumbersome biochip system, and the overwhelming number of ways the player could meet an untimely end drew criticism from some reviewers, such as Adventure Gamers, who wrote in their three-and-a-half star review: "The first thing you'll invariably notice about the game is its tiny viewscreen...a very disappointing return of windowed gaming...Once again filling up another large portion of the screen is the elaborate interface. The first game's interface walked the fine line between complex and complicated, but the one used in Buried in Time is altogether unwieldy." Most of these problems were resolved in the next game in the series, The Journeyman Project 3: Legacy of Time
The Journeyman Project 3: Legacy of Time
The Journeyman Project 3: Legacy of Time is a computer game developed by Presto Studios and is a sequel to The Journeyman Project and The Journeyman Project 2: Buried in Time.- Overview :...
.