''Beyond Time'' aka ''Shadow of the Obelisk: Delve Into the Corridors of Time'' is a 1997

full motion video Full-motion video (FMV) is a video game narration technique that relies upon pre-recorded video files (rather than Sprite (computer graphics), sprites, vector graphics, vectors, or 3D models) to display action in the game. While many games featur ...

adventure game An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story, driven by exploration and/or puzzle-solving. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based m ...

developed by Jones and Jones Multimedia and published by

DreamCatcher Interactive DreamCatcher Interactive Inc. (also known as DreamCatcher Games) was a Canadian video game publisher founded in 1996 by Richard Wah Kan. It was best known for its adventure games. In 2006, the company became a subsidiary of JoWooD Entertainmen ...

Development

The background of Jones and Jones Multimedia employees included theatre, fiction, literature, and art, and the company's video game output (including this game) combined these aspects together. They aimed to include genuine art and historical information to make it appealing and long-lasting. They set the game in locations that had an air of mystery and fascination. The team spent more than a year doing art history research to have a better understanding of the architectural worlds which were being created in the game. They turned their research into 3D representations; while they didn't recreate existing structures, they incorporated elements that they observed. The team aimed to add

2D animation Traditional animation (or classical animation, cel animation, or hand-drawn animation) is an animation technique in which each frame is drawn by hand. The technique was the dominant form of animation of the 20th century, until there was a shif ...

and sound effects to as many screens as possible to give a sense of a lived-in world, for instance a bird flying across the sky. A unique game engine was made for the title.

Critical reception

Quandary thought the game's short length let it down.

Just Adventure ''Just Adventure'' is a computer game website dedicated to the genre of adventure games. Founded in 1997, it publishes reviews and previews of adventure games, as well as opinion articles and interviews with game designers. The site was founded ...

and

Adventure Gamers ''Adventure Gamers'' is a computer game website created by Marek Bronstring in March 1999 dedicated to the genre of adventure games. It publishes reviews and previews of adventure games, as well as opinion articles and interviews with game de ...

described the game as a watered-down ''

Timelapse Time-lapse photography is a technique in which the frequency at which film frames are captured (the frame rate) is much lower than the frequency used to view the sequence. When played at normal speed, time appears to be moving faster and th ...

-''type experience.

Game Revolution Mandatory (formerly CraveOnline Media) is a lifestyle website based in Los Angeles with sales offices in New York City, Chicago and San Francisco. The site is owned by media company Evolve Media, LLC. Mandatory focuses its contents into the male ...

thought the graphics were underwhelming. Adventure Classic Gaming criticised the game's "plodding, chatty, confused storyline".

Computer Gaming World ''Computer Gaming World'' (CGW) was an American Video game journalism, computer game magazine that was published between 1981 and 2006. One of the few magazines of the era to survive the video game crash of 1983, it was sold to Ziff Davis in 199 ...

said it "wants to be ''

Myst ''Myst'' is a 1993 adventure video game developed by Cyan and published by Broderbund for Mac OS. In the game, the player travels via a special book to a mysterious island called Myst. The player interacts with objects and traverses the ...

''" and fails at it. PC PowerPlay deemed the game a "dry, humorless, dull, and pretty monotonous" Myst-clone. It received a score of 78 from '' FamilyPC''.

Awards and nominations

The game was the Runner-up for the "Coaster of the Year" award in the April 1999 issue of ''

''.

References

{{Reflist 1997 video games The Adventure Company games Adventure games Full motion video based games Puzzle video games Single-player video games Video games developed in the United States Windows games Windows-only games