author: Michael Kulakowski
The Iconic Adventure Game is Back - Blade Runner Available on GOG.com
The highly acclaimed 1997 adventure game Blade Runner, based on Philip K. Dick's prose and Ridley Scott's legendary film, was released for the first time in digital distribution thanks to the efforts of GOG.com.
Blade Runner, released by Westwood Games in 1997, is one of the last classic adventures to be released on PC in the 1990s. Released on four CDs, the game was based on Philip K. Dick's prose and Ridley Scott's legendary film under the same title. Despite the extremely good ratings of reviewers and players, as well as taking the highest positions on the lists of the best adventure game of all time, Blade Runner has not been available in digital distribution so far. This has changed today thanks to GOG.com, which prepared a new version of the hit, adapted to work with modern operating systems. The game can be bought for $9.05 (currently GOG.com offers a 10% discount on this price).
The original game was released in 1997, selling nearly one million copies worldwide.
The unexpected appearance of Blade Runner in the market is not only due to the Polish store, but also to Alcon Entertainment, which currently owns the Blade Runner franchise. It was the copyright problems associated with the title (music, screenplay and world projects) that were one of the biggest obstacles to resurrecting the game. It is worth noting that the process of porting the game itself was extremely laborious. After the fall of Westwood Studios in 2003, the game's source code disappeared.
The developers used ScummVM tools, previously used to emulate the classic LucasArts adventure games, to disassemble the commercial version of Blade Runner step by step for eight years straight, rebuilding it for today's PCs. By using ScummVM, the title will also have subtitles in all dialogues for the first time, which may encourage some translators to create a full localization of the title in the future. At the moment, the game is available in five original language versions - English, German, Spanish, French and Italian.
The action of Blade Runner takes us to futuristic Los Angeles, to the then distant year of 2019. We take on the role of Ray McCoy, an android hunter who hunts for replicants hiding in the city. During our adventure we will visit over a hundred different locations, meeting seventy three-dimensional NPCs, created using voxels and motion-capture technology. Interestingly, some of them are voiced by actors known from Scott's film, such as Sean Young and James Hong. One of the biggest advantages of the game is its completely non-linear story with many different endings. More about Blade Runner and its history can be found in an article on GOG.com.
