Serpent Isle – Snake Cover Art Proof

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This is another of my favourite items from the collection, a proof & negatives for the snake cover art as featured on the Serpent Isle box cover. Someone at Origin clearly wasn’t happy with this proof as it has some notes on it to bring out more detail in the darker areas. I can’t honestly say these areas are any less dark on the final cover though. I’ve got a second set of negatives where this may have been attempted but I don’t have a proof printed from this second set to compare.

Ultima 7 Part 2 Serpent Isle - Snake Art Proof & Negatives Ultima 7 Part 2 Serpent Isle - Snake Art Proof

I’m unclear as to whether it’s the original painting or another proof but the Origin Museum is in possession of one or the other which can be seen here courtesy of Razimus Dragon.

Bioforge Review – PC Format

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This review of Bioforge comes from the May 1995 PC Format. They clearly loved the game with the only complaints being occasionally getting stuck and the linear nature of the story:-

PC Format Bioforge Review - Page 1 PC Format Bioforge Review - Page 2

PC Format Bioforge Review - Page 3

Also from the same issue, a brief mention of Cybermage and Crusader debuting at ECTS. They question the decision with Cybermage to release another Doom clone and in hindsight they were probably right but it was still a great game even if hardly anyone played it:-

PC Format May 1995 Origin ECTS

Mark Hamill's WC3 Flight Suit

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One of the collectibles that you occasionally see on Ebay is a Wing Commander flight suit as worn by one of the cast. I’ve bid on one or two of these myself, although I’ve never been prepared to pay quite enough to actually win the auction. They are invariably in the USA and the thought of paying all that customs duty never helps out. It appears that the one everyone really wants (Mark Hamill’s) is probably here in the UK though as it was up as a competition prize in the March 1995 PC Gamer magazine. The competition refers to the interactive documentary on the February issue (which I don’t have), but any Wing Commander fan should be able to reel off the answers. So does anyone want to admit to owning this?:-

PC Gamer WC3 Flight Suit Competition - Page 1 PC Gamer WC3 Flight Suit Competition - Page 2

I’ve a couple of things to catch up after being away the last week. First yet another X-Wing scan I found in the February 1995 PC Format:-

X-Wing Collectors CD-Rom Full Page Ad

My Man On A Mission DVD arrived while I was away. There are some welcome extras with a handful of interview segments and the “Apogee Of Fear” short film. In case you haven’t heard of this it’s a sci-fi/horror movie shot entirely on the space station by Garriott and is as such the first feature ever shot in space. It’s only about 5 minutes long and the quality is about what you would expect when asking a bunch of astronauts to act. It’s stretching it to call it a movie but it’s far from serious and still entertaining because of it. A DVD commentary track would have been nice but it’s still not a bad package at all. My second dose of Origin DVD’s (Wing Commander Academy) was sent 3 days back also so I should in theory be getting it around the same time as most of the USA which is a welcome bonus. Expect a full review in due course.

Finally, I’ve been messing about with the site theme in the hopes of fixing my SEO problems and have reverted to a slightly modified default theme on the off chance it might help out. It could stand some improvement but it will do for now.

G4TV Icons – Richard Garriott & Warren Spector

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I expect this is one of those things that everyone except me already knew about but I discovered this G4TV show from 2002 on Richard Garriott today. It’s a biography including loads of interviews with him and other relevant (and not so relevant) figures from the industry. The majority of the show concentrates on the Ultima games and there wasn’t too much new but I liked the story about the reaction RG got in England when appearing in his Lord British persona.

I imagine LB still went over better with British audiences than the guy doing the voiceover for this show who was getting on my nerves within the first couple of minutes. Between him and all the quick cut editing, 20 minutes of this is a bit of an endurance test:-

Finding that led onto another programme with Warren Spector from a couple of years later. It’s a brief biography up to Deus Ex 2 which a strong emphasis on Origin and Looking Glass. The presentation is the same but it’s still worth a look:-

I finished the site move last night, if anything still doesn’t work let me know and I’ll fix it. The new host appears to be faster than the old one and the admin tools are better so I’m more than happy so far.