Alternate Reality: The City was released for the Atari 8-bit in 1985 and then a year later was released for the Apple II, Commodore 64, and Atari ST. In 1988 it would be released for both the Amiga and DOS. Phillip Price published this game through California-based Datasoft amidst quite a bit of publicity. The City was going to serve as a home base and from the city the player could then move in and out of future planned releases: The Arena, The Palace, The Wilderness, Revelation, and Destiny, each with its own set of quests and winning conditions. The idea was that the player could transition from game to game as Price wanted to create a huge world for he or she to immerse themselves in.
The first break of this outline was when Datasoft forced an early release of The City. The Sewers would have been included in the initial release but a year later became The Dungeon and it’s own release. Although The Dungeon was completed and released, work on the 5 remaining installments never moved beyond theoretical outlines. A brief summary of these outlines follows:
The Sewers (which was supposed to be included with The City but later became The Dungeon – the dungeon here is made up of four levels.
The Arena – slavers were to be added to The City who would then capture new gladiators and force them into combat in the arena. There were other ways in which a character might enter the arena. A free man could also join the arena and be pitted against other opponents and possibly retire into a life of luxury.
The Palace – would feature courtly intrigue and the ability to purchase land in the city. A player could climb a ladder of power and responsibility and maybe even choose to rule as king over the city. A character could retire in politics and “win”. New players could attempt to overthrow the king.
The Wilderness – was to be a scenario for players to discover the truth concerning Alternate Reality. There would be traps and tricks and diversions all in an attempt to turn the character away from this quest of truth. This expansion would feature vast new areas of outdoor terrain to explore.
Revelation – with the illusion of The City broken, a player could now find his or her way to the alien ship and out of the holo-world. You could reach the ship through the fourth level of The Dungeon as well as an area in The Wilderness.
Destiny – now armed with high tech equipment and allies of alien factions, the player could now take the fight to his alien captors.
Price’s plan, vast in scope, never came to be. Price was not even able to finish The Dungeon and it was finished instead by Ken Jordan and Dan Pinal. Gary Gilbertson created the music for both games.
Character creation involved choosing a name and then six attributes would begin spinning along the top of the screen much like a slot machine. Hitting the space bar stops the spinning and you are then assigned your attribute scores. The six attributes are stamina, charisma, strength, intelligence, wisdom, and skill. Your experience points, level, and hit points are also displayed. Once you are assigned your values you are dumped into the city.
One of the things about this game that I instantly took a disliking too was movement. Your steps are not measured. This makes mapping of the city extremely difficult. When you move in a particular direction, the movement is reminiscent of a vehicle in an arcade game. Your character glides in the direction you want to move in and picks up speed as you hold down the key. I gave up trying to map the city and just started wandering around.
Survival in this game is a tedious affair. You begin the game with no money, dressed in rags, and bare-handed. Exploration of the city is in real-time too. There is a PAUSE button which you can activate by hitting P on your keyboard, and I made great use of this. If you hesitate at all, you will trigger a random encounter. I encountered the poor, disenchanted, thieves, cutthroats, couriers, rats, and orcs. When you’re fighting in rags and bare-handed the odds of winning any of these encounters is not very high. I found myself cycling through several characters in the beginning until I was able to find success.
When combat begins you have the choice to charm, ignore, sneak, trick, engage, use, ready, cast or leave. Engage is the same as attacking and once you choose to engage you can then lunge, attack, or parry. Charm is a very interesting option but is hit or miss. When you choose to Charm if you succeed it actually kills the opponent. I got lucky with my sixth character and was able to charm an opponent. I was able to acquire enough coppers to go to a smithy and purchase a stiletto. Once I had a minor weapon, I could then engage weaker opponents and slowly build up my experience and wealth. It was a challenge building up enough wealth to even stay at an inn. Later, Fost, my sixth character was also able to find a dagger. When you defeat opponents, you gain experience and depending on the skills used your attributes can increase with time as well. Food and water were also a chief concern.
There were some interesting innovations that were extremely noticeable in my exploration of the city. Weather changed while you’re exploring and you could experience rain and clouds as well as view a bright sun high in the sky. You can even witness sunrises and sunsets. Day turned into night and the music in the game would change based on which locations of the city you were in.
There are banks that you can deposit money in which earns interest for you. There are merchant shops, inns, a smithy, and hidden areas in the city as well. All of this would make for a memorable experience if it were not for one major detail, which is my largest complaint.
There is no specific goal for the character to achieve here. You CAN grind your character higher, but it ultimately feels like an unfinished product. There are no dungeons or ruins or storylines of any kind here. Because there was no established goal or storyline, I did not feel compelled to spend more than ten house with the game. I built my character up to 3rd level and had amassed over 4500 coppers and just decided to call it quits there. I felt like I had done enough to give me a good feel for the game and to be able to report on it. The game seems to have obtained something of a cult status with many players and quite honestly I’m not sure why. I am sure that I will enjoy The Dungeon scenario much more because there are established goals and a quest to complete.
There is a lot to appreciate in the game’s design and innovations but it’s two chief problems are big ones for me: the continuous movement and lack of any kind of goals or plot. I did find a complete map of the city that someone created online and I’m including it here for your perusal or use.
Next up I am going back in time once again to 1980 to a game entitled Monster Combat.
Until next time……………