Total Eclipse is a first person adventure game released for the Amiga, Atari ST, Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, PC and ZX Spectrum computers in 1988. It can also be considered an early example of a First-person shooter.
Total Eclipse Remake
The game backstory as explained in the manual is that an evil Ancient Egyptian priest has put a curse on a massive pyramid dedicated to the Sun God, Ra. Any object obstructing Ra’s shrine from the Sun would be destroyed. The protagonist is an unnamed archeologist who learns that October 26, 1930, a total eclipse will obstruct the sun above Cairo, and the protagonist realized that the curse will cause the Moon to explode, devastating Earth with its debris. The protagonist then decides to travel to that pyramid and destroy the shrine to Ra, preventing the curse/prophecy.
The game starts with the protagonist having just arrived with a biplane parked outside the pyramid he is about to enter, two hours before the eclipse. The player has to enter and explore the pyramid, avoid traps, trigger and activate puzzles and navigate through maze-like rooms. Causes of death include dehydration, and heart attack caused by various hazards such as falling off ledges, getting crushed by falling stones and taking hits from poison darts. Throughout the maze the player can discover treasure to accumulate the score, and also ankhs that serve as keys to locked doors.
Total Eclipse was the third game to use the Freescape engine, which allowed the production of full three-dimensional environments using filled polygons in which the player could move around freely. However, the engine was improved for this release, adding spheres to collection of shapes used for building the 3D environments.
Like the previous Freescape-based games, it also gave the player the ability to ‘crouch’, and look up and down,as well as rotate left and right, something which was rare amongst 3D games of the time. The same engine was used for its sequel, Total Eclipse II: The Sphinx Jinx.
>The Remake by Trevor Smila Storey
Total Eclipse 2 came bundled with some versions of the game, subtitled ‘The Sphinx Jinx’.
Those that bought the game also had the opportunity
to enter a competition to witness the July 1991 solar eclipse in Hawaii
(where there are loads of pyramids).
The winner would be the person who completed the game with the highest score.
To prove that you had completed it, you had to draw a map detailing where you picked up the treasures.
If the score came down to a tie-break, then the best map would be declared the winner.
We wonder if anyone won it?
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