Telarium
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Formerly called
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Trillium |
|---|---|
| Founded | (1984) |
| Founder | C. David Seuss |
| Defunct | 1987 |
| Headquarters | Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
| Products | Video Games |
| Parent | Spinnaker Software |
Telarium Corporation (formerly Trillium) was a subsidiary of Spinnaker Software. The corporation was founded in 1984 and went defunct in 1987. The headquarters were located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.[1] The President of Telarium was C. David Seuss,[2] the founder and CEO of Spinnaker Software.
History
C. David Seuss founded Trillium Corporation as a subsidiary of Spinnaker Software, the company that he was already the CEO and founder of. Within the first year of its foundation the original name, Trillium, was changed to Telarium due to legal issues presented by a book publisher. Telarium exclusively released adventure games with the exception of Shadowkeep, which was a role-playing game. The games were based on books, and the development of each game led to cooperation between the software developers and the authors. The first author who was consulted was the famous science fiction novelist, Michael Crichton, who collaborated on the development of Telarium's Amazon game, which was loosely based on Crichton's book Congo.[3][4]
Adventure games
Telarium published eight adventure games. The games belonged to the genre of interactive fiction with graphics. One game (Shadowkeep) was also a role-playing video game. They were based on works of literature in the literary genres science fiction, fantasy, crime fiction and legal drama. Often they were developed in cooperation with established writers.[5] The game development was a part of Spinnakers marketing strategy in the adventure game market in the 1980s: Target groups of Telarium adventures were grown-up players and target groups of Windham Classics, another Spinnaker subsidiary, were children.[6] The development was managed by Seth Godin.[7]
- Amazon, 1984 (written by Michael Crichton, partly based upon his novel Congo)
- Fahrenheit 451, 1984 (developed in corporation with Ray Bradbury and based upon his science fiction novel Fahrenheit 451. Bradbury contributed a sequel to the game)
- Rendezvous with Rama, 1984 (developed in corporation with Arthur C. Clarke and based upon his science fiction novel Rendezvous with Rama. Clarke contributed a different ending to the game)
- Dragonworld, 1984 (written by Byron Preiss and Michael Reaves, based upon their fantasy novel Dragonworld)
- Shadowkeep, 1984 (first video game that inspired a novel: Shadowkeep, Warner Books 1984 by Alan Dean Foster).
- Perry Mason: The Case of the Mandarin Murder, 1985 (based upon the fictional defense attorney Perry Mason, authored by Erle Stanley Gardner)
- Nine Princes in Amber (based upon the fantasy novels Nine Princes in Amber and The Guns of Avalon by Roger Zelazny)
- The Scoop, written 1986 and rerelased by Spinnaker Software 1989[8] (based upon the detective serials The Scoop and Behind the Screen by Agatha Christie et al.)
Two more adventure games were announced, but not published (Starman Jones, based on a science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein, and The Great Adventure, based on a science fiction novel by Philip Jose Farmer).[9]
Reception
The Telarium adventures received critical acclaim. They were praised for the prime quality text, the detailed graphics and the interactive opportunities.[10] The cooperation with famous writers like Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke and Michael Crichton was accentuated as a special feature of Telarium.[11]
References
External links
- Trillium/Telarium at MobyGames
- Trillium, Telarium at Museum of Computer Adventure Game History by Howard Feldman
- Telarium at The Interactive Fiction Collector's Guide by Manuel Schulz
- Telarium at Adventureland by Hans Persson and Stefan Meier
Notes
- ↑ Jimmy Maher: Let's Tell a Story Together. A History of Interactive Fiction. Senior Honor's Thesis, University of Texas, Dallas 2006 (Kapitel 6 The Rest of commercial IF – Trillium/Telarium)
- ↑ C. David Seuss: Welcome to Telarium, Fall 1984 (Telarium-Newsletter) at The Interactive Fiction Collector´s Guide – Telarium by Manuel Schulz.
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- ↑ Selby Bateman: Is A Picture Worth A Thousand Words?, Compute!, Issue 53, October 1984, p. 32.
- ↑ Marguerite Zientara: Inside Spinnaker Software, InfoWorld volume 6, issue 33, August 1984, ISSN 0199-6649, p.43-48
- ↑ Shay Addams: if yr cmptr cn rd ths..., Computer Entertainment, August 1985, p. 24-27, 76–77; Selby Bateman: Is a Picture worth a thousand words?, Compute!, Issue 53, October 1984, ISSN 0194-357X, p. 32
- ↑ Telarium at Adventureland by Hans Persson and Stefan Meier
- ↑ Telarium at Adventureland by Hans Persson and Stefan Meier
- ↑ e.g. Gil Merciez: Fahrenheit 451, Antic Amiga Magazine, Vol. 5 Nr.1, 05/1985, p.81; David Cuciz: Gamespy Interviews – Alan Dean Foster. The Writing Game, August 2000
- ↑ William V. Costanzo: The electronic Text: Learning to write, read and reason with computers. Educational Technology Publications 1989, Chapter A brief History of Interactive Fiction, p.67f.
