Sixth Sense Investigations is a new graphics adventure for the Amgia based on the classic LucasArts style games. The base storyboard tells of a crazy young guy who has the ability to communicate with the spirit of a sarcastic man. A friend, who thinks of himself as a detective, profits from the psychic abilities of his friend (the crazy psychic guy) by using his skills to solve the most bizarre problems of the rich.
Features...
- Very long (30 locations to explore).
- Many animations to enrich the game.
- Interesting and complex enigmas.
- Works 100% on any AGA Amiga.
- Multiple load/save game features.
- 256 colours; 50 frames/second screen refresh for super smooth action.
- Fast and comfortable user interface.
- LucasArts game style.
- Zoom of main character.
- Multi-language version.
- 20 music tracks; sound effects
- Full character speech on CD version.
- 25 funny charactes to interact with.
- Suitable for Amiga CD32.
~ from the back of the box
If a game is exclusive to the Amiga, chances are it'll disappear into obscurity. Even with the recent revival of the Amiga 500 Mini, the platforms most popular titles found their way to other formats. When Commodore discontinued the hardware in 1996, game development was still active among smaller companies who would suddenly get a lot of attention in magazines starved for Amiga content. Swiss developers CineTECH did just that with their first (and only) game; the point-and-click adventure Sixth Sense Investigations.
Taking inspiration from the cartoony style and dry humour of Day of the Tentacle, Sixth Sense Investigations unabashedly wears its inspiration on its sleeve. It looks just like a an adventure from that time, with swirling clouds in the sky, lanky character designs and not a straight line in sight. This comparison to LucasArt's gold-standard of the genre doesn't do Sixth Sense Investigations any favours, even if its very existence excited Amiga owners back then. There is a distinct lack of polish in all aspects of the game, but it's a credit to the development team that a certain charm still shines through its stilted animation, amateurish script and aging game design.
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While most of the game is voice acted, conversations are bizarrely silent (left).
A couple of map screens give access to a multitude of locations (right).
A couple of map screens give access to a multitude of locations (right).
If anything, it's miracle the game came out as good as it is. Its production was unconventional to say the least, with members of the team scattered throughout all of Europe. Without the internet as we now know it, communication wasn't as easy back then even without language barriers. Apparently, the team really struggled to get the game to market and were truly relieved to see it finally get released. That explains the buggy nature of the game, which I believe is more than just inconsistencies in the emulation. Graphical glitches I experienced included a picked up item remaining on-screen, stuck animations and - more egregiously - bleeding code. What I mean by this is that clickable spaces from a previous screen will occasionally get confused with the new one becoming a Frankenstein of the two. Hotspots bleed into each other blocking you from progressing any further. Reviews at the time have mentioned the graphical issues, but I'm unsure if this last point is down to emulation rather than its original code. Luckily, a save, restart and reload solves the issue (don't use save states!), but it's a major pain nonetheless.
As for the game itself? Well, I rather like it despite its flaws. You play as the owner of the Sixth Sense Investigations detective agency. Working with your psychic friend Ben and his sarcastic ghostly companion Arthur, you get called to help find the missing cat of the wife of a wealthy cheese baron. Somehow, this sets you on a journey involving invading robots from another dimension... and a real live Toon Town! Surreal is an understatement.
Puzzles are entirely inventory-based, with the occasional red herring items here and there. I didn't come across much in the way of pixel hunting, but moon logic is alive and well. Want to patch up a hole in a car tyre? Stick it in some molten cheese. Want to enter the cheese baron's house without his wife stopping you? Convince her you have a gift for her cat that isn't a live mouse, then place a tennis ball in a suit of armour, press a hidden switch so he'll throw it at the cat then give it the mouse to chase. In a way, I guess it's going for comedy in its surrealism, but it does fall a little flat. It may be easier than the custard-diving octopus-planting bizarreness of Discworld, but at least there it all felt true to that world. Here, it's just clutching at straws.
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In some chapters, you'll play as Ben trapped in the robot dimension (left). He can still communicate
with Arthur (in a silly costume) who will convey messages to his partner in the real world (right).
with Arthur (in a silly costume) who will convey messages to his partner in the real world (right).
The script has a groan-worthy attempt at humour. From what I gather, the story and text team were based in Germany so there may be something lost in translation when it came to the English-language version. Either way, the most chuckles I got out of it was from the English voice cast. Their uninterested line-reading in their Leicester accents pitched up and down so they don't all sound the same. It's laughably bad. Some interactions do have promise. Arthur's ghostly form sports a different costume every time he appears for no reason whatsoever. The robot world is run by a Star Wars-referencing Emperor but has the squeakiest Leicester accent out there. Even a tentacled robot shopkeeper puts on an effeminate inflection that makes the abrupt dialogue funnier than it should be.
I am incredibly glad I found this curious oddity. The good things about it make for a competent adventure but it's the bad things that make it absolutely worth playing (apart from the glitches that is). It's colourful, nice to look at with a nostalgic design I actively look out for. I doubt it would rank among anyone's favourites but for a few glorious hours, I revelled in an alternative dimension where there was a LucasArts-style game I'd never knew existed.
To download the game, follow the link below. This custom installer exclusive to The Collection Chamber uses FS-UAE to emulate the Amiga CD. Walkthrough included. Read the ChamberNotes.txt for more detailed information. Tested on Windows 10.
File Size: 115 Mb. Install Size: 287 Mb. Need help? Consult the Collection Chamber FAQ
Download
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Sixth Sense Investigations is © CineTECH
Review, Cover Design and Installer created by me
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Problem with starting the game.
ReplyDeleteHow so? The game should launch within FS-UAE when you hit "Play" from the custom menu. You can bypass the menu by launching "Run.bat" from the AMIGA sub directory.
DeleteHm, for me everything works fine, after introduction scenes I start in a room, and I can play.
DeleteNever mind my stupid comment... it works fine.
DeleteHope you enjoy it! You may want to read the ChamberNotes if you don't want to watch that intro every time you play.
DeleteHow do you get this to run in "windowmode"? Is there a settings file to edit?
Delete"Alt+Enter" doesn't seem to toggle it. It just flickers and stays "fullscreen".
Thanks!
Alt-Enter or F12-F is supposed to work, but if not, from the install directory open "AMIGA\SSI.fs-uae" in notepad and change "fullscreen = 1" to "fullscreen = 0"
DeleteEditing the "SSI.fs-uae" file worked. Thanks for the Tip!!
Deletethere is fmv game from 1996 called piper maybe u should put it on ur page ?
ReplyDeleteKudos to the team for getting the game out the door. Cross-continental development before the internet sounds like a monumental task. A bit like Argonaut working with Nintendo to make Star Fox, albeit with less success. Even if the game isn't ultimately very good, your article made for an interesting snapshot into computing history, so thanks.
ReplyDeleteHow to change language?
ReplyDeleteAlas, this is only the English version. If you have the ISO of your chosen language, extracting its contents to "(install dir)\AMIGA\base\Hard Drives\SixthSense" overwriting all that's in there may work though no guarantees.
DeleteOk thanks, thanks but in "Features" it is written that it is the multilingual version and there are the ITA language files in the path you indicated
DeleteThe blurb at the top is a direct unedited quote copied from of the back of the original box - warts and all. I transcribe it to give an idea of how it was originally presented and advertised before giving my own take. It's not necessarily representative of the packages I create (eg, it may state a lower resolution than it will run in, talk about a defunct control scheme or mention online multiplayer when such a thing has long since stopped working).
DeleteIn this instance, the ISO I sourced contained the English language only despite having the same text on the box (I can't see the ITA game files you're referring to). Read the Readme.txt in the MAN folder for a copy of the original documentation. In my research I could only find one other language for the CD talkie version - German (get it here: http://www.amiga-arena.de/adventure.html). Perhaps the floppy version has more languages programmed but I haven't investigated those. My original ISO came from here;
https://archive.org/details/sixth-sense-investigations
In the path AMIGA > base > Hard Drives > SixthSense > Data i see files with ITA and GER extension, maybe there is a method to translate or maybe they have nothing to do with language, I'm not expert on stuff like this. I tried to rename and replace the originals but don't worked. Anyway thanks for reply
ReplyDeleteOkay, there's no real info out there - not even in the game's official documentation - but it appears those are the German and Italian text files (11 in all for ITA, 7 for GER). I found this out by simply deleting the "ITA" (or GER) at the end of each file and have it replace the original one. Speech is still in English (if there's an Italian VO, I've yet to source it) so you'll have to sit through the intro before you can change it to text only (there's no way to have both simultaneously). Older save states made before this change may not work either.
DeleteIt worked but only for the command list, the dialogs are still in english text. Do you know how to fix?
DeleteIt looks like you'll have to hunt down the Italian version. I only tried the opening screen which did seem to change, but being a monolinguist Englander, I didn't go beyond this. Make sure all 11 files have been renamed. Beyond this I cannot help - I only really support English language versions.
DeleteOk, thanks anyway for help
DeleteHaha... funny to find this review. I am the actual artist who did the gfx. I didn't do the wooden animations, but that was all my fault as I quit the game halfway through because indeed we had loads of problems. The programmer had his own agenda and was inmume for our bug reports as they ended up in the game. See the rotating CT logo on the left in the first screen. That was only there for the demo and not the full game. My photo is in the room with the fan and the cat. The tools programmer is in there also :)
ReplyDeleteMy inspiration was DOTT. I am not sure if that was the case with the programmer, but since I started the art based on simple line art, I guess I started it. We did have mail ofcourse and I believe IRC or something similair. We were Dutch, Italian, Australian, English and German. The voices were done by our publishers. I didn't know anything about it, but they had a real laugh creating them. In the end we didn't earn money with it. I believe I bought a scanner or a printer of the little amout I did earn. Can't be more then 200 euro's. But it was a lot of fun. Not during, but in hindsight I am happen to be part of the team.
I might create a proper remake if I get enough crowdfunders :) I even started recreating the first screen on the PC. The orginal Amiga ones are tiny haha.