Gaming: The Revolution Started Here: Beneath A Steel Sky

The Revolution Started Here: Beneath A Steel Sky

To call anything "the best ever" is often setting it up for a fall, but the cyberpunk point-and-click adventure game Beneath A Steel Sky (1994) was a seminal moment in gaming history. Graphically stunning, due to the artwork of comic book artist Dave Gibbons, who did the artwork for the ground-breaking comic book series Watchmen. And established the then Hull based software company Revolution Software as one of the main global players in adventure games, in the mid-1990s. Following up the success of Beneath A Steel Sky, with another massive hit Broken Sword in 1996.

At the time the main players in the adventure gaming industry were Sierra Online and LucasArts. Around the time of Beneath A Steel Sky's release, Sierra had scored a huge hit with their own point-and-click adventure Gabriel Knight (1993), and that same year LucasArts had hit the double with Sam & Max Hit The Road and Day Of The Tentacle. Adventure gaming was a big market, and Revolution Software were at the time minor players, compared to the big American software houses. But they knocked it out the ball park when Beneath A Steel Sky hit the stores.

Set in a Blade Runner style dystopian future, you played Robert Foster (as the Dave Gibbons illustrated comic book told you that came with game), had been orphaned and taken in by Aboriginals in the wasteland called "the Gap". One day security forces turn up from Union City looking for Foster. They force him at gun-point into a waiting helicopter, before flying away and blowing-up Foster's adopted tribal family. And thus the game starts!

As Foster arrives in the helicopter he is travelling in crashes, and he manage to escape, carrying with him the circuit board of his robot companion Joey. At the beginning of the game, Foster puts Joey's circuit board into a "robotic vacuum cleaner", which Joey is not too happy about. Throughout the game, which is littered with irreverent humour, Joey's circuit board is swapped into different bodies. His attitude to this being a running joke throughout. We find out that there is an all-powerful computer running Union City, called LINC. As Reich one of the security officers from the crashed helicopter, attempts to kill Foster, but is stopped and killed by LINC. And with that the game starts in earnest, as you as Foster accompanied by Joey uncover the truth about LINC and Foster's background.

When the game was released in 1994, I was working as an assistant manager in a computer store in Hull called Calculus. I became aware of the imminent release of Beneath A Steel Sky after getting hold of a demo of the game. I contacted the guys at Revolution, being a local company, and asked if they wanted to do the launch of the game at our store. They agreed, and one Saturday they turned up at the store for a meet and greet, and signing session. We loaded up the game on computers in the store, and I loaded it up on the back office computer. While the staff were dealing with customers, I merrily plugged away at the game. Sidling up to members of the Revolution team whenever I got stuck, asking for hints. The launch went well, and as the lads from Revolution packed up to leave, they popped their head into the back office to say goodbye. Just as the final credits of the game scrolled up the screen I was sat in front of. Making me (with the help of hints from the Revolution team) probably the first member of the general public to complete the game. And on top of that, as a bonus, I given a pre-release copy of the game, signed by Dave Gibbons. And an awesome promotional T-shirt featuring the "Much too late" panel from the comic book. Damn that was a hard day's work. Unfortunately both signed game and T-shirt were stolen a couple of years later. I was gutted. That was until my brother got hold of an original copy of the game and sent it to Revolution to be signed, presenting it to me as a gift in 2013. I still wish I had that T-shirt though.

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