Software:Search for the Titanic

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Short description: 1989 video game
Search for the Titanic
Developer(s)Codesmiths
IntraCorp
Publisher(s)Capstone Software
Programmer(s)Jeff Jones
Sean Puckett[1]
Platform(s)MS-DOS, Commodore 64
ReleaseFebruary 1989: MS-DOS[2]
1989: C64[3]
Genre(s)Adventure
Mode(s)Single-player

Search for the Titanic is a graphic adventure developed by Codesmiths and IntraCorp and published by its subsidiary Capstone Software in 1989. It was released for MS-DOS compatible operating systems, then ported to the Commodore 64. Versions for the Apple II and Amiga were planned, but never reached development (or just cancelled and not completed in the case of the announced Apple II port).[4][5] Accolade, Inc. helped to distribute the game.[6] Much of the gameplay is based on Robert Ballard's expedition to locate the wreck of the RMS Titanic.[7]

Gameplay

The game does oceanographic simulation. The player has to build up reputation and resources by exploring sunken ships on an expedition to find the Titanic. To gain funds, the player needs sponsorship with good reasons to carry out the voyage. If that works out, the player needs the right equipment, adequate supplies, an ideal vessel and competent personnel on a limited budget. Next the player navigates through the sea and finds a suitable place to dive and find a shipwreck. The game includes 75 shipwrecks, over 100 maps and charts and 47 ports to stop at. Problems can occur during the expedition including the crew's health declining, bad weather and running out of supplies and funds.[8] Some of those shipwrecks include Spanish treasure and Noah's Ark.[9]

Development

President of Intracorp, Leigh Rothschild was fascinated by historical shipwrecks and earned a degree in history the University of Miami. Being president of the large electronic company, Rothschild had access to a lot of multimedia. He built up his inspiration from whatever literature and videos on diving and shipwrecks he could dig up. It wasn't until June 1987, that Rothschild actually came up with an idea on the Titanic. For this project he needed recent photos of the shipwreck and expertise from an oceanographer. He turned his attention to Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, whom his brother Kenneth had worked with previously and were conveniently located near enough for him to contact on a daily basis. Woods Hole were keen on the idea of a video game based on their exploits and Intracorp got the required rights. At the request of Robert Ballard, Intracorp changed it so that no treasure collecting occurred in the gameplay, in order to set a good example for players and future oceanographers.[10]

Coding the game required the help of Codesmiths programmers Jeff Jones and Sean Puckett. Before their assignment, they did have a keen interest in the Titanic ocean liner. The proposal took ten days to produce. By November 1988, a substantial amount of programming had been completed. Puckett drew the maps of the game by hand. The simulated weather was the hardest feature to implement. All organisation names in the game were created so as not to coincide with real-life companies. Jones and Puckett had difficulty accurately researching the diving equipment, so they had to make educated guesses. Ballard's photos were no good for digitizing in their current format, so Codesmiths had the slides converted to contact prints (placed on one sheet of light-sensitive paper) at a photographic lab. Then the page of contact prints were placed inside a scanner with a special digitizing program to input them into a computer. The digitized images were then resized with dithering applied.[10]

Release

An Amiga version of Search for the Titanic was introduced at the Winter CES in January 1989.[11] The IBM PC compatible version was highlighted at the ACE Game of Show in 1989. [12] The Commodore 64 version was shown at the European Computer Trade Show in April 1990.[13]

Reception

Reception
Review scores
PublicationScore
The Games Machine68% (DOS)[14]
ACE647 (C64)[8]
Zzap!6450% (C64)[15]
RunB (DOS)[16]
Award
PublicationAward
Game PlayersPC Excellence Award[17]

A reviewer from The Games Machine gave the game a score of 68% saying that the game lacks gameplay and gets boring, but may be worth checking out if you are looking for something different.[14] A reviewer from Zzap!64 gave the game a score of 50% finding the graphics and screens uninteresting and the gameplay boring.[15] An ST Log reviewer described the game as an off-beat adventure with enough detail to consume a computer-bound treasure hunter for hours.[18]

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution reviewed the game for its geographical accuracy.[19]

References

  1. ↑ "Sean M. Puckett Resume". http://www.allabout.com/afs/sean/resume-plain.htm. Retrieved January 8, 2020. 
  2. ↑ "Special Report". Computer Gaming World (Golden Empire Publications) (56): 9. February 1989. http://pdf.textfiles.com/zines/CGW/1989_02_issue56.pdf. 
  3. ↑ "Taking a Peek". Computer Gaming World (Golden Empire Publications) (59): 6. May 1989. http://pdf.textfiles.com/zines/CGW/1989_05_issue59.pdf. 
  4. ↑ "News - Intracorp, Inc.". Commodore Magazine (Commodore Magazine Inc.) (28): 8. April 1989. https://archive.org/details/28-commodore-magazine/page/n9. 
  5. ↑ Capstone 1993 Product Line. Capstone Software. 1993. p. 7. http://mocagh.org/miscgame/intracorp-93catalog.pdf. 
  6. ↑ "Buyer's Guide". PC Zone (Future plc) (1): 119. April 1993. https://archive.org/details/PCZone001/page/n117. 
  7. ↑ Randall, Neil (December 1989). "Search for the Titanic Gameplay". Compute! (ABC Publishing) (115): 110, 112. https://archive.org/details/1989-12-compute-magazine/page/n111. 
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 "Search for the Titanic - Capstone/CRL". ACE (Future Publishing) (31): 70. April 1990. https://archive.org/details/ACE_Issue_31_1990-04_Future_Publishing_GB/page/n69. 
  9. ↑ Hedrick, Steve (June 1990). "Gazette Reviews". Compute!'s Gazette (ABC Publishing) (84): 62. https://archive.org/details/1990-06-computegazette/page/n63. 
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 "Titanic: The Quest of the Century". Commodore Magazine (Commodore Magazine Inc.) (28): 54–55, 90–94. April 1989. https://archive.org/details/28-commodore-magazine/page/n55. 
  11. ↑ Polsson, Ken. "Chronology of Amiga". http://pctimeline.info/amiga/amig1989.htm. 
  12. ↑ "Game of the Show". Compute!'s Gazette (ABC Publishing) (84): 62. July 1990. https://archive.org/details/1990-06-computegazette/page/n63. 
  13. ↑ Canavese, Filippo (July 1990). "European Computer Trade Show '90". Guida Videogiochi (Gruppo Editoriale Jackson) (13): 31. https://archive.org/details/Guida-Videogiochi-13/page/n59. 
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Rigby, Paul (April 1990). "Still Flying High". The Games Machine (Newsfield Publications) (29): 86. https://archive.org/details/the-games-machine-29/page/n85. 
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 "Search for the Titanic - Zzap!64". Zzap!64 (Newsfield Publications) (59): 25. March 1990. https://archive.org/details/zzap64-magazine-059/page/n23. 
  16. ↑ Ryan, John (February 1990). "Stay Dray While Exploring the Deep Seas". Run (IDG Communications) (74): 20. https://archive.org/details/run-magazine-74/page/n21. 
  17. ↑ Rigby, Paul (March 1990). "Game Player's First Annual". Game Players PC Strategy Guide (Imagine Publishing) 3 (2): 13. https://archive.org/details/GPPCSGVol3No2/page/n13. 
  18. ↑ "The World of Adventure". ST Log (31): 53. May 1989. http://www.atarimania.com/mags/pdf/st-log-magazine-issue-31.pdf. 
  19. ↑ "Commodore Clips". Compute!'s Gazette (ABC Publishing) (70): 10. April 1989. https://archive.org/details/1989-04-computegazette/page/n11. 
  • MobyGames is a commercial database website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes over 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms.[1] Founded in 1999, ownership of the site has changed hands several times. It has been owned by Atari SA since 2022.

Features

Edits and submissions to the site (including screenshots, box art, developer information, game summaries, and more) go through a verification process of fact-checking by volunteer "approvers".[2] This approval process after submission can range from minutes to days or months.[3] The most commonly used sources are the video game's website, packaging, and credit screens. There is a published standard for game information and copy-editing.[4] A ranking system allows users to earn points for contributing accurate information.[5]

Registered users can rate and review games. Users can create private or public "have" and "want" lists, which can generate a list of games available for trade with other registered users. The site contains an integrated forum. Each listed game can have its own sub-forum.

History

Logo used until March 2014

MobyGames was founded on March 1, 1999, by Jim Leonard and Brian Hirt, and joined by David Berk 18 months later, the three of which had been friends since high school.[6][7] Leonard had the idea of sharing information about computer games with a larger audience. The database began with information about games for IBM PC compatibles, relying on the founders' personal collections. Eventually, the site was opened up to allow general users to contribute information.[5] In a 2003 interview, Berk emphasized MobyGames' dedication to taking video games more seriously than broader society and to preserving games for their important cultural influence.[5]

In mid-2010, MobyGames was purchased by GameFly for an undisclosed amount.[8] This was announced to the community post factum , and the site's interface was given an unpopular redesign.[7] A few major contributors left, refusing to do volunteer work for a commercial website.{{Citation needed|date=June 2025} On December 18, 2013, MobyGames was acquired by Jeremiah Freyholtz, owner of Blue Flame Labs (a San Francisco-based game and web development company) and VGBoxArt (a site for fan-made video game box art).[9] Blue Flame Labs reverted MobyGames' interface to its pre-overhaul look and feel,[10] and for the next eight years, the site was run by Freyholtz and Independent Games Festival organizer Simon Carless.[7]

On November 24, 2021, Atari SA announced a potential deal with Blue Flame Labs to purchase MobyGames for $1.5 million.[11] The purchase was completed on 8 March 2022, with Freyholtz remaining as general manager.[12][13][14] Over the next year, the financial boost given by Atari led to a rework of the site being built from scratch with a new backend codebase, as well as updates improving the mobile and desktop user interface.[1] This was accomplished by investing in full-time development of the site instead of its previously part-time development.[15]

In 2024, MobyGames began offering a paid "Pro" membership option for the site to generate additional revenue.[16] Previously, the site had generated income exclusively through banner ads and (from March 2014 onward) a small number of patrons via the Patreon website.[17]

On February 13, 2025, Freyholtz stepped down as the site lead to move onto new projects, leaving operations to Tracy Poff, a veteran coder on the site, and Atari staff.[18]

See also

  • IGDB – game database used by Twitch for its search and discovery functions

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Sheehan, Gavin (2023-02-22). "Atari Relaunches The Fully Rebuilt & Optimized MobyGames Website". https://bleedingcool.com/games/atari-relaunches-the-fully-rebuilt-optimized-mobygames-website/. 
  2. ↑ Litchfield, Ted (2021-11-26). "Zombie company Atari to devour MobyGames". https://www.pcgamer.com/zombie-company-atari-to-devour-mobygames/. 
  3. ↑ "MobyGames FAQ: Emails Answered § When will my submission be approved?". Blue Flame Labs. 30 March 2014. http://www.mobygames.com/info/faq7#g1. 
  4. ↑ "The MobyGames Standards and Practices". Blue Flame Labs. 6 January 2016. http://www.mobygames.com/info/standards. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Miller, Stanley A. (2003-04-22). "People's choice awards honor favorite Web sites". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. 
  6. ↑ "20 Years of MobyGames" (in en). 2019-02-28. https://trixter.oldskool.org/2019/02/28/20-years-of-mobygames/. 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Plunkett, Luke (2022-03-10). "Atari Buys MobyGames For $1.5 Million". https://kotaku.com/mobygames-retro-credits-database-imdb-atari-freyholtz-b-1848638521. 
  8. ↑ "Report: MobyGames Acquired By GameFly Media". Gamasutra. 2011-02-07. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/game-platforms/report-mobygames-acquired-by-gamefly-media. 
  9. ↑ Corriea, Alexa Ray (December 31, 2013). "MobyGames purchased from GameFly, improvements planned". http://www.polygon.com/2013/12/31/5261414/mobygames-purchased-from-gamefly-improvements-planned. 
  10. ↑ Wawro, Alex (31 December 2013). "Game dev database MobyGames getting some TLC under new owner". Gamasutra. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/game-dev-database-mobygames-getting-some-tlc-under-new-owner. 
  11. ↑ "Atari invests in Anstream, may buy MobyGames". November 24, 2021. https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2021-11-24-atari-invests-in-anstream-may-buy-mobygames. 
  12. ↑ Rousseau, Jeffrey (2022-03-09). "Atari purchases Moby Games". https://www.gamesindustry.biz/atari-purchases-moby-games. 
  13. ↑ "Atari Completes MobyGames Acquisition, Details Plans for the Site's Continued Support". March 8, 2022. https://www.atari.com/atari-completes-mobygames-acquisition-details-plans-for-the-sites-continued-support/. 
  14. ↑ "Atari has acquired game database MobyGames for $1.5 million" (in en-GB). 2022-03-09. https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/atari-has-acquired-game-database-mobygames-for-1-5-million/. 
  15. ↑ Stanton, Rich (2022-03-10). "Atari buys videogame database MobyGames for $1.5 million". https://www.pcgamer.com/atari-buys-videogame-database-mobygames-for-dollar15-million/. 
  16. ↑ Harris, John (2024-03-09). "MobyGames Offering “Pro” Membership". https://setsideb.com/mobygames-offering-pro-membership/. 
  17. ↑ "MobyGames on Patreon". http://www.patreon.com/mobygames. 
  18. ↑ "An update on MobyGames leadership". 2025-02-13. https://www.mobygames.com/forum/3/thread/269628/an-update-on-mobygames-leadership/#post-269628. 
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