Software:Time Gate: Knight's Chase

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Short description: 1995 video game
Time Gate: Knight's Chase
Developer(s)Infogrames Multimedia
Publisher(s)
  • EU: Infogrames Multimedia
Programmer(s)Frederic Barbier
Christophe Cotte
Denis Ferraton
Jean-Marc Morel
Christophe Nazaret
Platform(s)MS-DOS, Microsoft Windows, Mac OS
Release
Genre(s)Action-adventure
Mode(s)Single-player

Time Gate: Knight's Chase, or simply Knight's Chase, is a puzzle-solving video game by Infogrames Multimedia released in 1996 for MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows, the latter being a SVGA version released exclusively in North America. It was also released for Mac OS in 1997.

The gameplay is similar to the Alone in the Dark series of games. The game uses a modified engine of the first three Alone in the Dark games, featuring Gouraud-shaded, rather than flat shaded, polygons.

Knight's Chase was the first game in a planned trilogy of Time Gate video games.[2]

Plot

It’s 1995, when William Tibbs, a young American man studying law in Paris, searches the newspapers to find signs of his girlfriend Juliette, who has been missing for a couple of days. One night from nowhere his room is attacked by a menacing dark knight with a view to killing William, but William quickly defeats him and the knight evaporates, leaving behind a ring without a stone and a mystical mirror through which William sees far into the past where Juliette is a prisoner in the hands of the evil inquisitor Wolfram. This is where the adventure begins, when William must find a way to go back in time to the 14th century, the era of the ancient Knights Templar, and to become a knight. Without properly understanding the twists and turns around him, William just wants to find Juliette and get back to modern times. But first he must defeat Wolfram and thus restore the glory of the Knights Templar.

Reception

Maximum praised the game's mix of swordplay and puzzles, as well as the plot twists, but gave it an overall negative review due to its overt similarity to the Alone in the Dark series, commenting "The Alone in the Dark trilogy are undeniably great games, but after milking the genre dry surely a change of plan is necessary. Obviously not if Time gate [sic] is anything to go by, as it's more than just a tribute to the Edward Carnby adventures - it's practically identical." They also stated that the Gouraud-shaded characters look dated compared to texture-mapped characters, and scored the game three out of five stars.[3] A reviewer for Next Generation instead complained of awkwardness resulting from the game's controls and limited number of camera angles, and criticized the developers for not including gamepad support. He further commented that though Alone in the Dark was a landmark game, Knight's Chase did not make enough improvement given the three years that had passed since then. He scored it two out of five stars.[4]

Andy Butcher reviewed Time Gate for Arcane magazine, rating it a 7 out of 10 overall.[5] Butcher comments that "polished though it is, Time Gate doesn't really offer anything new. If you're familiar with the Alone In The Dark series you won't be able to escape the feeling that you've seen all this before. Still, there's precious little to criticise, and it offers several hours of solid gaming."[5]

References

  1. ↑ "Online Gaming Review". 1997-02-27. http://www.ogr.com/news/news0796.html. 
  2. ↑ "Time Gate". Next Generation (Imagine Media) (17): 71. May 1996. 
  3. ↑ "Maximum Reviews: Time Gate". Maximum: The Video Game Magazine (Emap International Limited) (4): 159. March 1996. 
  4. ↑ "Knight's Chase". Next Generation (Imagine Media) (21): 154–6. September 1996. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Butcher, Andy (June 1996). "Games Reviews". Arcane (Future Publishing) (7): 72. 
  • 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 lengthy 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]

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. 
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