curiousities - The Chronicles of Jaruu Tenk

bit of a short one compared to last time, but a interesting gem nonetheless.

The Chronicles of Jaruu Tenk was developed by John Passfield and Steve Stamatiadis and released in 1999 by Gee Whiz! Entertainment. according to the help file, the game is a "screen opera"; basically a interactive virtual environment that also doubles as a screensaver if you so wish.

so yeah, it's not a "game" in the general sense of the world; there's no major goals or long-term objectives. the scale's also rather small, with it set in the titular Jaruu Tenk's house, but there are quite a few things about Chronicles that are pretty interesting for its time.

set in the world of Kombara on the island of Bloofen Jut, Jaruu works as an Observer, keeping track of volcanic activity in the region and keeping an eye out for any threats. as a visitor to the island, you can explore around Jaruu's house, talk to him and his friends, read up on the lore of Kombara, and even play games around the house with Jaruu.

probably the best way to describe Chronicles is as a predecessor to Nintendo's Animal Crossing games; a life simulator with characters who live out their own lives, taking place in a persistent world that changes in real time. as said before, the scale's much smaller than that of Animal Crossing, but you got to take in consideration that this was developed by a four-man team in 1999 instead of a major game company in 2001.

according to artist Steve Stamatiadis in a 1998 press release, "We've created a complete back story to Jaruu's world. Everything is there for a reason and there's a rich history that can be uncovered through exploring." around Jaruu's house are digital books describing various things, such as the fauna of the nearby Boulder Grove, famous people in Kombara, the mysterious energy source known as Mokuu, and quite a deal more. there's also a computer featuring artwork of various characters and vehicles by Steve Stamatiadis himself. c:

the game runs in real time; Jaruu and his friends will do different things depending on the time of day, and some things will even change as days pass by. He might be working on a robot during the morning, setting up lunch in the afternoon, or sleeping on late nights. Jaruu gets the newspaper delivered to his place daily and keeps a journal that he writes in each day, and sometimes he'll even get new items or books from his friends and family. according to designer John Passfield, he'll even set up a tree around Christmas time.

a much-boasted feature of Chronicles is the "AI Language Parser" which allows you to talk to Jaruu and his friends, similar to Facade. i can't judge whether or not it's more advanced than Facade's parser system or not, but then again i think even with fictional blokes i have a hard time coming up with interesting conversation. there's a rather large conversational database, and Jaruu even remembers things you have told him.

even if you don't feel like talking to Jaruu yourself, you can follow him and his friends around the island and watch them perform tasks like cooking or checking up on the news or building machines. they'll also talk with each other on occasion.

there's not really much to say about Chronicles that hasn't already been said before. it isn't anything too complex and admittedly it couldn't hold my attention for too long, but it's an interesting relic of the life simulation genre and a nifty little time-killer. despite the dated graphics, it runs well on a Windows 7, provided you toggle on the software renderer in the configuration panel (for some reason using the primary display driver causes the 3d environment to not show up at all; not sure if tinkering with compatibility options will fix this). unfortunately i couldn't get the game to run as a screensaver on Win7, but you might have the option for it on older systems.

if you want to give it a spin, John Passfield has the game up for free on his website, and there's also a few other free goodies alongside Chronicles if you want to try them out. his site's also got some interesting features and his thoughts on game design as well. funfact, he co-founded Krome Studios and the Ty the Tasmanian Tiger series. the more you know.

anyhow, gen ichida, signing out. be rad, stay rad, and all that good stuff. and i'll try to get back to work on the Disgaea manga readthrough. pinky swear.