Yes, you did. Sometime in the 2000nds the interior apparently was changed into something non video game themed. And then a few years ago that even burned down as well, the owner is probably broke now.
There will also never be anything like it as it was so much of its time, when many people still considered computers somewhat magical.
There are obviously more and better videos of its latter incarnation out there, but that didn´t either have a laser show nor videogame on screen footage*. Too bad, I wish I could relive the particular show I saw nearly 30 years ago, even if it was just on youtube.
*Edit BTW my Dad also remembers “Maupiti Island” as one of the featured games. So there must have been a lot of different shows, and they were all adventure game focused too it seems!
I played it now and it´s terrible in just every way. You get lots of arbitrary deaths, dead ends you only will learn of a lot later (and not explained why) and the dropping off cliffs issue known from Space Quest and other Sierra games (that even got its own spoof game with StairQuest) has been pretty much pumped up to 11. There´ll be lots and lots and lots of deaths from falling off tiny walkways(some of which seemingly intentionally have been obscured by foreground graphics to make it even harder, so you´re even guessing half of the time where not to step!) navigating with the arrow keys (forget about pointing and clicking that´ll always go wrong!).
At the same time while looking nice it also doesn´t look a whole lot different than any of the early Space Quest games, but with less charm and the music is okayish at best. What you get eventually from it doesn´t seem to be worth the frustration that you no doubt have to put into playing this.
I think it depends on the reference points they had back then. Keep in mind that Monkey Island was released that SAME YEAR! Only reinforces what a quantum leap it was in terms of gameplay and just about everything, making a game like this super dated as soon as it was out.
And according to wikipedia the ratings were more mediocre:
Scorpia of Computer Gaming World wrote that Altered Destiny “leaves me with mixed feelings”. She stated that the graphics were merely “okay” and the pathing was “ridiculous and frustrating”, but concluded that it was “still a game worth playing” because of its difficulty level, “bizarre and alien” setting, “tough but fair” puzzles, and humor.[1] Allgame described the game as similar to King’s Quest and Space Quest but without the charm.[2]
And I absolutely agree with the point about the pathing. Just finding the right spot to start walking up some steps shouldn´t feel that frustrating as it does here.
Not really, the framing introduction had some fun parts but overall I wasn´t really invested in the story since it´s once again your run of the mill “average guy gets transported to a foreign world, is not exactly the saviour the people there need, but will have to do (this is in fact almost verbatim the expository dialogue you get in the intro!”) .
So no, I didn´t think the story was special enough to be worthy of the struggle. I get the comparisons the reviewer makes with the fantastic art of Roger Dean however and yet there were other games out at the time that did this better as well (and funnily enough some even used Roger Dean art for the packaging!).
A walkthrough I read even mentioned “are you as sick of constantly falling over cliffs as I am at this point?”
Had I played this game 30 years ago I can imagine it wouldn´t have been the story or images that would have stuck but “Oh yeah, wasn´t that the game where you fall to your death at seemingly every single turn?”
Haha, same. (Well, and for the Famicom Detective Club series, too.) Although I can’t play it until next year because I really need to focus on finishing a more immediate project.
I play most “newer” games on Stadia these days, with not that much choice for games. But
Part 1 & 2 are there and I added them but didn’t play them yet.
