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Thursday 15 June 2017

MORPHEUS


What would you do is your explorer father disappeared on an arctic expedition 30 years ago? Well, if you're the nameless hero of Soap Bubble Productions' 1998 adventure game Morpheus, a content and normal life is not an option. Time for a life-threatening adventure!

All that's left of your father is a cryptic note mentioning the Herculania, the lost luxury ship he was travelling on during the roaring 20s. Because no one can have unresolved unfinished business in video games, you brave the treacherous polar ice-caps for years on a journey that mirrors your father's, but it's only after a brief spell of unconsciousness do you get to where you're going - the Herculania.

If the introduction sounds a bit trite, that's because it is. Motivations are thrown out of the window for the sake of a silent hero in an attempt to become an avatar for the player. Most first-person adventures take this stance, but few do it successfully. It is perhaps why I've always preferred the LucasArts school of adventuring over than the many similar-looking Myst clones. Morpheus, like Myst, is a shining example of this type of adventure done well. So well, in fact, that my concerns with the opening all but disappear the moment the first story event is triggered. A ghostly apparition depicts a man silently hanging himself on the deck, setting you up for the intriguingly spooky adventure ahead. The further you get into the game, the more the world sucks you in with a surprisingly deep mystery that mixes up the whodunit with nightmarish dreamscapes and decopunk horror.

After 30 years, the Herculania has seemingly been abandoned in the arctic yet still remains functional. With the exception of a few ghostly apparitions haunting the hallways and the hull, everywhere is eerily quiet. Much like The 7th Guest, small, seemingly innocuous vignettes interrupt you as you explore the ship, each transition is seamlessly animated explaining away the three jam-packed CDs used for the game. At every junction, a 360-degree panorama can be manipulated which also adds to the tangible sense of presence. Hold down the right mouse button to look around, but you will need steady mouse control as it's all too easy to send the camera spinning around in a dizzying chaos. The left button interacts with the scenery. There's no inventory at all, with just single-use keys and similar items automatically taking over the cursor icon until it has been used. Other decals will offer up some important clues when examined. The excellent and detailed graphics do invite you to take a closer look but only important features can be zoomed in. A good thing too as the nature of the puzzles leaves little room for red herrings. Keep a notepad handy folks, 'cos solving the puzzles will most likely be figured out there rather than in the game world itself.

It's in the puzzles where Morpheus differentiates itself from its peers - specifically how they are integrated. Not a single one feels out of place within the game world nor are they there for the express purpose to pad out the game's run time. That's not to say it's an easy game - it's not - but the way they're implemented isn't often used in a game of this type. You'll have to take logical leaps that draw from real-world experiences and at times it will even ask you to think about the personality of the ghosts you encounter. For example, you cannot enter the bedrooms of each ghost without a 3-digit code. These numbers are personal to each guest. Take Leo Galte the famous boxer. Given his vocation, it makes sense that his weight would be important to him and any time game he's mentioned - however directlry - hints at this. Finding out how much he weighs is another matter (and requires a little mathematical knowledge) but it is just one example of how it tests your digital sleuthing skills.

Along with Leo, there are five other guests of note. Belle Swan the dancer and her wheelchair-bound step-daughter Claire Moon, the rather prudish Grace Thermon, Billy Mexler the con man and Dr. John Malherbe, a noted Herbalist. Each are connected in rather surprising ways, but to tell them here would ruin the rather good mystery that unfolds. What I will say is that the Captain of the Herculania and his super-intelligent adoptive son, Jan, hold many secrets. In fact, Jan is the catalyst for everything that happens onboard. As you investigate further, you'll notice this is no ordinary ship, but one powered by strange futuristic technology, including a machine that allows you to live out your dreams. You can even visit the twisted dreamscapes of several of the guests. Impressively, these dark detours not only line up to their personalities as you will know them but also add significant clues to piecing together the over-arching storyline. It will become ever more apparent that the journey you are on is no longer about your father.

Morpheus is a masterpiece of interactive storytelling. Every puzzle, poster, and point of interaction are all in service of this. It's presented in a fascinating non-linear fashion that will keep you guessing right up until the end. Besides the odd control niggles and a less than great opening, I find it hard to criticise anything else about the game. Even my predilection towards the inventory-heavy third-person point-n-clickers hasn't hindered my enjoyment of it one bit. It's taken me almost 20 years to play this gem, and I would rank it amongst the likes of Obsidian and Myst as one of the best games of its type. A hidden masterpiece.

UPDATE. A remake is being worked on by the son of the original developer. Check out his progress here.


To download the game, follow the link below. This exclusive installer uses the DOSBox Daum build of DOSBox 0.74 running Windows '95. Manual included. Tested on Windows 10.

File Size: 1.45 Gb.  Install Size: 1.86 Gb.  Need help? Consult the Collection Chamber FAQ

IMPORTANT - Remember to shut down the emulated version of Windows before exiting DOSBox. This could potentially result in errors, lost saves and corrupt data. Press Ctrl-F9 when it is safe to do so.

Download


Morpheus is © Soap Bubble Productions
Review, Cover Design and Installer created by me

Like this? Try These...

Titanic - Adventures Out of Time  Obsidian  Clandestiny

16 comments:

  1. It is simply wonderful to find out that you seem to have spared no effort in presenting one of my favourite lost gems I was very eager to play since I became aware of it for the very first time - and that jewel I'm talking about is Morpheus, indeed. In combination with your passionate review (which means nothing less than an ode to the game), I regard this extraordinary adventure as an absolutely worthwile addition to the Collection of your Chamber with which the inclined player (who has a soft spot for dreamlike Myst-ical experiences) will have a blast, I dare claim as well.

    Thanks, Biffman 101, for making it happen! :-)

    Bye for now,
    Thomas

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  2. I am the son of the original software developer of Morpheus. I have in my spare time been working to port the entire Morpheus game to a web application. You can see my effort to do so at soapbubble.online. Thank you for making this emulated port available as I previously had no other way to run the original game to be able to check bugs and interactions. I am also in possession of much of the original unmastered assets in uncompressed format and hope to one day be able to release a remastered version of the game. Thank you and keep up the great work.

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    Replies
    1. Hey, that's brilliant! I look forward to playing an updated official version. Let me know if and when you want me to replace the download link to your site and I'll happily do so. There's nothing like supporting the original developers if you can do so.

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  3. Thank you for all your effort to ensure the combatibility of these awesome games with modern PCs!

    I have a question. Where can I find the actual save files Win95 run via Dosbox creates for games like Morpheus and Obsidian? The folder path while in Win95 is obviously emulated, and I can't find the saves in Win10.

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    Replies
    1. Hello. The are stored within the emulated Windows 95 environment, which is held withing the .img file. Because of the way DOSBox and PCEm work with Windows 95 emulation, it's not saved externally to this. You can look within them using a program like ISO Buster and extract the saves, but back the .img file up first in case you do something wrong.

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    2. hello,
      i need a download file for holiday island for win10
      i tried to instal but i can;t
      can you help me?

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    3. Check the FAQ, that'll detail common issues with installations and their solutions. Holiday Island can be found in the Strategy sections of this site.

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  4. I played Morpheus decades ago, but its atmosphere is still with me. An absolute gem of a game. Many thanks! I still have the game in physical form, and was wondering how to make it playable again on Windows 10... You beat me to it. A real Christmas present!

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  5. Error message "Internal error OpenMovieFileError" when I click in one of the musical instruments in the Bella Swan dream. The game crashes and returns to Windows 95.

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    Replies
    1. Unfortunately I'm also experiencing this bug. Not sure if a workaround exits.

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    2. Same here. Too bad I was enjoying the game very much.

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    3. Update: I was able to circumvent the error by not playing the drum and instead going directly to the oboe. Thanks for Biffman for providing the opportunity to play this great game - puts recent adventure titles to shame! Post-scriptum: how did we gamers ever manage without walkthroughs on the Web back then? I do not remember....maybe it was trial and error.....I do remember spending hours in Grim Fandango and Black Dahlia to advance a tiny little bit in the game....

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  6. Thank you very much for the game morpheus

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  7. Thank you for creating a pre-packaged emulator for this game. I'm hurt that my CDs don't work anymore.

    Graphically the game works, but I experience audio glitches whenever I pan the view or advance to a new node. Cutscenes sometimes have audio clicks as well. I've been tweaking the video/audio settings but nothing has changed this. Does anyone have any tips on how to fix this?

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    Replies
    1. after spending hours tinkering, I think I found the settings that help with this.

      under [mixer]

      nosound=false
      swapstereo=false
      rate=22050
      blocksize=4096
      prebuffer=1000

      all about the sample rate and blocksize, trading off sound synch with stuttering. A better setting is likely possible and I will tweak it further, but for now I wanted to leave this here in case anyone else had the same issue. The above settings have made the game playable, no audio clicks after every pan and transition.

      Thanks again for this emulated port. It will work just in case the game never sees an official rerelease.

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