The Sacred Mirror of Kofun
The Sacred Mirror of Kofun is a 1996 puzzle video game/multimedia encyclopedia co-produced by Jean-Michel Cousteau with the cooperation of the National Center of Cinematography and the moving image and the French Ministry of Economy, Finances and Industry. It features full motion video sequences and actual underwater footage, the first game to do so.
Plot
The game is set in 1999 on the Antares, a futuristic nautical research lab which sails off from Honolulu.The player character is Chris Young, a former racecar driver and Gulf War pilot, who was hired by Cousteau because of his interest in marine technology, to pilot the Antares and find the ideal location to launch the Poseidon research lab.
Early in the game, the player receive a videophone message from Steve Grant of the "Worldwide Heritage Foundation". Archeologist John Braddy was after a sacred Japanese mirror of the Kofun period which belonged to a Japanese warlord Ishuta who led the Yamato armies to fend off invaders from the Kinai plains. The mirror was given to him as a talisman by his wife, Maiko. It was said that its reflection helped him defeat his enemies and afterwards his victory was engraved on the mirror. After his death, it was buried in his kofun. Fifty years after World War II, an ancient document came to light which established the mirror's historicity. Grant had failed to find the mirror but Braddy found Ishuta's lost tomb.
The player has to navigate the Antares to the wrecks and reefs of the West Pacific and the Palau Archipelago, explore islands, gather clues and combine them using the database of EDWARD to unfold more clues. The educational portion of the game includes scuba diving with the aid of the Angel Shark diver propulsion vehicle, taking photographs of the sea fauna and then cataloguing them to EDWARD. The player is additionally tasked to locate Braddy.
Characters
There are several characters the player can interact with, mainly from the ship's intercom.- Jean-Michel Cousteau - In the game, Cousteau was given the responsibility by the "International Scientific Committee" to produce several programs in order to evaluate the health of planet Earth.
- Steve Grant - The head of the "International Scientific Committee" and board member of the influential "Worldwide Heritage Foundation". With Cousteau he studies the global environmental trends and their effects on the coral reefs. He is also interested in finding Ishuta's mirror and after he failed, he sent Braddy after it.
- EDWARD - An Artificial Intelligence created by Dr. Paul Sinus, who runs the Antares and also the interface of its mainframe. EDWARD stands for the words Encyclopedia-Database-WorldNet-Album-Reports-Disconnect. EDWARD also contains Jean-Michel Cousteau's Encyclopedia of the Sea built into, with information on underwater ecology, fauna, the geography and history of Micronesia, and the actual Japanese ships that sunk in the Chuuk Lagoon, including tonnage, dimensions and blueprints.
- Luciana Capucci - An Italian specialist in underwater biology. She is on board the Antares to help the player locate the ideal spot for the Poseidon.
- Paul Sinus - A scientist introduced by Cousteau to the team, the inventor of the Poseidon, the Antares, the Angel Shark and EDWARD. His main duty is to keep the high tech equipment aboard the ship working
- Ann Fong - A Chinese historian, expert in ancient Japanese legends. She is the last to join the crew early in the game, as soon as the fate of Braddy is known.
- John Braddy - The scientist who looked for the Sacred Mirror and was lost.
Gameplay
The interface of the game is that of a typical first person point-and-click puzzle adventure game. The player explores environments depicted through a large series of computer generated stills, using mouse clicks for movement or to manipulate objects within reach. Environments include the CGI sections and corridors of the Antares or natural environment exploration on the islands, generated by actual photographs.;Antares
;Dives
;Exploration
;EDWARD
Production
The game was produced by Paris-based Future Concepts, a subsidiary of IDP. It was envisioned as the first part of an edutainment multimedia title series under the name The Interactive Adventures of Jean-Michel Cousteau. Cousteau was excited by the possibilities of interactive CD-ROM technology which would not only help his work reach young people, but allow them to participate.Pre-production begun in early 1995, and development and design took place in Paris, simultaneously with filming. The project cost roughly 8 million French francs.
The virtual setting of the ship Antares was designed with Cousteau's naval officer as a consultant. According to Cousteau, a ship like the Antares might become reality in the future.
Filming and scripting
In summer, a team consisting of oceanographers, photographers and a scriptwriter, led by Cousteau, transported equipment from Los Angeles to Chuuk Atoll, Micronesia. Production lasted several weeks during which they took several photographs and video footage around the island and the ocean; Cousteau and his team performed 4-5 dives a day.A location featured prominently was the Chuuk Lagoon, famous for the more than 100 shipwrecks that sunk during Operation Hailstone of the WWII. The project was marked when one torpedo, whose compressed air container of its propulsion system had rusted away, and exploded while the team were down.
The plot was written simultaneously with the brainstorming and the reviewing and selection of the footage.
Marketing
Since the game play was weak by gamers standards special care was given to advertising which encompassed several media and highlight Cousteau's name and participation.Development problems encountered in late testing resulted in release delays, so the game was released in late November, after the hype subsided.