Nile: An Ancient Egyptian Quest is a 1997 educational point-and-click adventure game developed by American studio Stone House Productions[1] and published by Simon & Schuster Interactive[2] for Windows 95 (also works on 98).[3] Players rescue three pharaohs – of the Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms – by immersing themselves into ancient Egyptian culture and life.[4][5] In the UK, it was published by Zablac Entertainment.[6] The game is no longer available.
| Nile: An Ancient Egyptian Quest | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Stone House Productions |
| Publisher(s) | Simon & Schuster Interactive |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows |
| Release |
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| Genre(s) | Point-and-click adventure game, edutainment |
| Mode(s) | Single-player video game, multiplayer video game |
The Metropolitan Museum of New York gave Simon & Schuster Interactive permission to include 17 objects from their Egyptian collection in the game; they received a fee plus percentage of sales.[7] For instance, the game includes a digital adaptation of the board game senet based on an artifact from the museum.[8]
Throughout the exploration, the player is guided by jackal-formed Anubis (voiced by Connecticut-based community theatre actor Alexander Kulcsar).[9] The player encounters scrolls containing video clips (narrated by actress Kelly McGillis) panning across and zooming on sketches, like simple motion comics.[10][3] There are 15 clips, each about 3 minutes. They feature:
- pharaohs: Imhotep, Pepi II, Mentuhotep II, Hatshepsut, Amenhotep III (lake for his queen)
- roles of the scribe
- myths: the creation, Osiris, Horus, the wedjat eye
- Meketre's funerary figurines
- retellings of tales: the Shipwrecked Sailor, Sinuhe, Djadjaemankh the magician-scribe
- Thutmose IV's dream of the Sphinx (from the Dream Stele)
The background music is by English ambient musician Brian Eno, who included some tracks from his soundtrack of the TV series Neverwhere and his album Generative Music 1 (both were from 1996).[6] The rest of the game's music is otherwise unreleased.
References edit
- ^ "Stone House Productions". www.stonehouseproductions.com.
- ^ "GAMES GAMES GAMES". South Florida Sun-Sentinel. November 27, 1997.
Nile: An Ancient Egyptian Quest. Ages 10 and up. $39.95 (Simon & Schuster). 800-983-5333. CD-ROM for Windows '95. Explore the splendor of ancient Egypt while on a quest to restore the ka (life force) of three long-dead pharaohs, setting them on a path to the afterlife.
- ^ a b "Nile (an adventure for the entire family)". CD-ROM Access. 1998. Archived from the original on 2009-05-03.
- ^ "Nile walkthrough". www.gameboomers.com.
- ^ McGehee, Michael (November 26, 1997). "ATTENTION-GETTERS". Chicago Tribune.
- ^ a b "Brian Eno - Issued Records & Videos". EnoWeb.co.uk.
- ^ Rosenbaum, Lee (July 23, 1998). "Art Lovers Cool to Lures of CD-ROM's". New York Times.
- ^ "Senet, ein altägyptische Brettspiel für PC" (in German).
Auf der CD-ROM des PC-Adventures "Nile: An Ancient Egyptian Quest" gibt es eine Version des Senet. […] ein kastenförmiges Senet, auf einem Spieltisch mit Löwenfüßen, das dem teilweise ergänzten Senet im New Yorker MMA (Metropolitan Museum of Art) ähnlich ist. Die Markierungen der Felder entsprechen hier am ehesten dem Original.
- ^ "Nile - credits". MobyGames.
- ^ Lee, Helen (April 26, 2000). "Simon & Schuster's E3 Lineup". Gamespot.
Kelly McGillis and Brian Eno [sic] lent their voices to this game.
[Correction: Eno is not a voice actor, but the composer for the game.]