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syntheticgerbil

The Last Express

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Hopefully someone here can answer this:

I was wanting to get the Last Express with most of the original contents, although I don't need the outer box. I am kind of confused with what came with a new game. A lot of Ebay auctions are selling the game "new" in a 3 CD case without a front insert, but with a back insert. Is this how the original case is?

I ask this because my dad owns the game with the 3 CD case and without the front insert.

I'm guessing the manual came separate. So is this all that it came with new or are there front inserts and such I should look out for on the CD case?

I guess I'm asking because instead of buying a boxed copy, I may be able to complete a used set of the game if I drive to my parents house and steal my dad's copy of the game when he isn't looking.

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Mine was the big box, and came with a Prima guide and I think a black and white instruction manual. Don't know if that helps.

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Yeah I think there's a lot of boxed copies with missing pieces, thanks for the information guys.

I'll wait until I see something on Ebay come up that seems near complete and in good condition.

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I was just saying the other day that I wanted to play this, and assumed – incorrectly – that it would be readily available for download from Gog or some such service. Turns out that assuming this is now correct.

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How does the original boxed CD version work with Windows 7 64bit by the way? Or should I again go out and "buy a second copy" just so it can run on my modern computer?

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How does the original boxed CD version work with Windows 7 64bit by the way? Or should I again go out and "buy a second copy" just so it can run on my modern computer?

Last time I tried to install it, I had to also install Quicktime 2 or something. Maybe it is time I buy it again... This was on XP and it ran fine. I dunno about 7.

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It also says it's the "Collector's Edition" with "including many bonuses"... but they don't say what! :tdown:

From RPS:

With this you do get a recently created special edition, which comes with its soundtrack, a walkthrough, and a making of.

I'm very tempted, thanks to all the talk about it, but I think I'll wait a bit, until I've cleared the backlog and have the money to spare.

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Hmm. You get a "Making of" with the game anyway (it's on Disc 1). There's a fantastic walkthrough on GameFAQs, too (where the person points out historical trivia and references). So the soundtrack? Hmm.

Still... it's available again! :tup:

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I can't recall saying I've ever played this. Has one of my lies come back to haunt me?

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Turns out that assuming this is now correct.

Sweet! Not only did I get the game, it's also a site new enough that I was able to nab the username "James"! I love doing that. LOVE.

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It's all one download (you get a choice of language on the download screen), which unpacks and then runs an installer. It's all installed to one directory, containing all the game stuff, an AVI of the making-of (320 x 240, a shade over ten minutes long), a PDF of the walkthrough (a very bare-bones bullet point list affair), and an OST subdirectory containing 25 MP3s (256 kbps) and a cover image thing.

In short: a bunch of files in the main game directory.

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Good stuff, thanks for that. I think I'll stick with my CD version.

If you do decide to go for a walkthrough, I recommend this one over a bullet point affair. The author clearly loves the game and really juices it for all it's worth... explaining the many real historical references along the way.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/198971-the-last-express/faqs/61183

I've personally only used it to look over the bits I've already seen, but I'm presently stuck, and so am finding myself tempted to read a bit more.

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Is it just on my laptop, or does this game's cutscenes mostly play out in a story-book fashion? Still image, short transition image, still image etc? I ask because there seems to be a strange mix between that and generally fluid animations, so I just don't know.

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Is it just on my laptop, or does this game's cutscenes mostly play out in a story-book fashion? Still image, short transition image, still image etc? I ask because there seems to be a strange mix between that and generally fluid animations, so I just don't know.

Yes.

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Is it just on my laptop, or does this game's cutscenes mostly play out in a story-book fashion? Still image, short transition image, still image etc? I ask because there seems to be a strange mix between that and generally fluid animations, so I just don't know.

Yep. A technical restriction of the times. You get used to it pretty quickly, though.

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Yep. A technical restriction of the times. You get used to it pretty quickly, though.

I think it was a creative choice moreso than a technical compromise.

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I think it was a creative choice moreso than a technical compromise.

I think they would have had more frames of animation throughout the game if they could have. They clearly used it as much as possible, and in moments when it was "important" to the story (i.e. cut scenes).

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It's actually primarily a result of the specific process they used; it wasn't really a deliberate creative choice or precisely a product of the time period itself. They used entirely proprietary tools to handle the rotoscoping and film transfer process, and it took a vast amount of time to complete each animation frame.

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This seems appropriate to quote:

Q: So what made you come up with the effect of dissolving between frames every one or two seconds used in Last Express? Why didn't you use the more traditional, full-motion style throughout the game?

A: From our point of view, full motion is basically an expensive special effect. It looks great, as in the corridors, as in the fights. But we had decided to use that for the entire game, I think we would have ended up with something that was visually very flashy but not very deep. We're limited both by the amount of frames that can be kept in RAM and by the number of CDs. But ultimately, you're limited by the processor's ability. When you walk into the restaurant and it's full of people, with a number of different animations happening on the screen at the same time, as well as multiple tracks of audio streaming from the CD, that's possible only because each character is only animated every few seconds.

But there's also an aesthetic disadvantage to full motion. Say the technological limitations could be overcome, and we had a thirty-second loop of a character eating dinner. Sooner or later you realize the character is repeating. So you say, "why is it that when he takes a sip from his wine glass and then takes a bite of steak, the steak keeps getting replenished every time he eats it?" that's not helpful to the game, to have the player's attention distracted by following those little full-motion bits. When it gets down to it, we decided what's important for the game is that the character is there, having dinner for an hour and fifteen minutes. And any time during that hour you can talk to him. The fact is that dissolving between still frames gives just as good an impressionistic sense of "dining" as the full motion would, and in some ways better, because you don't have that glitch when the film loops. So, with this convention, once the player accepts it, it opens up the world and gives you the ability to tell this huge story that goes on for three days and three nights with thirty characters doing all kinds of things. It would have been a drastically smaller story had we stuck to full motion.

A quote from an interview Jordan Mechner did. That full interview is in a book titled 'Game Design Theory & Practice' by Richard Rouse III. Not sure if the entire interview is online somewhere.

edit: http://flylib.com/books/en/4.479.1.93/1/ It is!

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