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shares its premise with Pohl's first book, of a poor space prospector who arrives on the eponymous space station with the intent to use the dangerously poorly understood alien crafts that are based there to explore distant worlds and strike it rich. The similarities soon end as the game introduces
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travel method. It arrives at a huge space station carved out of an asteroid floating halfway between Venus and
Mercury, which is full of thousands of similar ships, but otherwise empty. However, the explorer is unable to figure out how to return to Venus, and faced with a lack of supplies, figures
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The alien ships that are found still function, but their built-in destinations are a mystery. Navigation is accomplished by using 5 digit codes with the ships' computers, but there is no way to tell what codes go where. Volunteers called prospectors come to
Gateway to test the codes and pilot the
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threatens all advanced civilizations in the universe, and the
Heechee managed to evade them. Leonard Worden, the deputy chief of the exploration program, informs the player that even after all those years, reactivation of the Heechee technology by humans would only make them detectable to the
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has won a one-way ticket to
Gateway, membership as a prospector in the Gateway Corporation and 10 days of provided life support along with a small amount of money. The player begins as a Prospector and follows procedures in order to know Gateway better and afterwards begin exploring Heechee
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ships to their destination, explore and report back what they find (as well as bring anything interesting back). A large majority of the prospectors return with little or nothing, a tenth never return, but the remaining 1.5% return with artifacts or knowledge that make them incredibly rich.
267:
the
Heechee technology, they can use the ships' stored destinations and the station becomes humanity's "Gateway" to outer space, hence the name. This almost leads to war among the superpowers of Earth over ownership, until a compromise is finally worked out. A co-operative called the
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The game's climax occurs on a world of the
Assassins, dubbed "Watchtower" where the player is sent to activate the mechanism. There he will meet a Heechee artificial intelligence entity and also an electronic Assassin entity which will trap the player in a
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coordinates. The findings are important enough to get him secure 'Green Badge' status; prospectors of that status are sent to explore only known destinations, with considerably higher probabilities of
Heechee finds.
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original elements, changes (in the novel's terms: travel times are negligible, Gateway has Earth-normal gravity, all ships are ones and bastard control panels are the norm) and material from the later books.
410:, but enjoyed its graphics, music and story. He concluded that for those "looking for weeks of game play and puzzle solving it may seem a disappointment, but for an entertaining story it hits the spot."
244:
and colonize it. Below the surface, thousands of miles of artificial tunnels are discovered. They are believed to have been built thousands of years ago by an alien species known as the
292:
Exploration in one such planet brings a
Heechee 'computer' which makes him rich; however, after being analyzed by the Gateway Corporation, it reveals that a hostile alien race, dubbed
256:
out how to detonate the fuel cell of the ship he came in. The detonation kills him, but also attracts the attention of a NASA tracking station, who send an expedition to investigate.
356:
except in the puzzles, which were "pretty good" but based on "the last decade of adventure game design ... most would not be out of place in a golden oldie like
372:
is essentially a text adventure with amenities". Ardai disapproved of the game's small number of locations, which the large number of puzzles and repetitive "
368:", especially the "jarring and inappropriate" logic puzzles. He approved of the game's graphics and sound but stated that he mostly ignored them because "
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176:
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The game plot then sends the player to four planets in order to activate a shield device that would 'cloak' the technology signal from the
Assassins.
376:" obscured, and the possibility that a player might never die (which "seems to directly contradict the premise of the game"). He concluded that
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Rather than report his findings, he climbs in and activates it. The ship launches and goes into "TAU Space," a
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was "good enough" but "nothing about the game makes it compelling", predicting that it "will most likely join
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The game ends with the player's return as a hero and the fear that the threat of the
Assassins still exists.
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Assassins. However the same computer provides coordinates to an interplanetary shield device.
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is formed, with the superpowers each holding one quarter of company stock.
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and their like in a dusty corner of adventure game history". Writing for
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The discovery of the station and its ships allow humanity to travel into
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Screenshot of Barracks and Main interface in Gateway I
352:stated that "Pohl's influence is felt throughout"
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502:
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552:at Adventure Classic Gaming, screenshots etc.
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398:, Greg Ellsworth found the game easier than
987:Video games developed in the United States
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820:
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564:
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27:
452:Yee, Bernard (August 1996). "Joyriding".
177:made the game available for free download
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240:A century in the future, humans land on
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327:'s novels, but deviate significantly.
312:and afterwards upload the Heechee AI.
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503:Ellsworth, Greg (September 1992). "
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451:
154:, and written by Glen Dahlgren and
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14:
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704:John Saul's Blackstone Chronicles
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478:"Pohl Position: Legend's Gateway"
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434:from the original on 1997-01-10
263:. Although they were unable to
33:DOS cover art of the first game
900:The Boy Who Would Live Forever
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420:
166:. It was followed by a sequel
1:
872:Beyond the Blue Event Horizon
484:. No. 99. pp. 32–33
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175:In 1996 Legend Entertainment
957:Adventure games set in space
543:Interactive Fiction Database
510:Computer Games Strategy Plus
428:"LEGEND Company Information"
395:Computer Games Strategy Plus
335:
7:
982:Video games based on novels
972:Science fiction video games
697:Callahan's Crosstime Saloon
676:Superhero League of Hoboken
230:
182:
10:
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967:Legend Entertainment games
319:Relationship to the novels
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977:Single-player video games
947:1990s interactive fiction
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886:The Annals of the Heechee
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729:Unreal: Return to Na Pali
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743:Unreal II: The Awakening
549:Frederik Pohl's Gateway
528:Frederik Pohl's Gateway
323:The games are based on
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140:Frederik Pohl's Gateway
858:The Merchants of Venus
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925:Gateway II: Homeworld
644:Gateway II: Homeworld
482:Computer Gaming World
342:Computer Gaming World
190:
169:Gateway II: Homeworld
860:" (original novella)
587:Legend Entertainment
507:; A Virtual Venus".
383:Rendezvous with Rama
152:Legend Entertainment
56:Legend Entertainment
45:Legend Entertainment
662:Companions of Xanth
594:Interactive fiction
270:Gateway Corporation
145:interactive fiction
117:Interactive fiction
879:Heechee Rendezvous
654:Graphic adventures
210:. You can help by
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179:from its website.
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809:
808:
736:The Wheel of Time
253:faster-than-light
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158:. It is based on
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952:1992 video games
893:The Gateway Trip
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784:Related articles
683:Mission Critical
637:Eric the Unready
630:Spellcasting 301
609:Spellcasting 201
602:Spellcasting 101
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476:(October 1992).
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407:Spellcasting 101
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286:player character
265:reverse engineer
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164:Heechee universe
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458:. No. 20.
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462:. p. 28.
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460:Imagine Media
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325:Frederik Pohl
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294:the Assassins
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206:This section
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160:Frederik Pohl
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66:Glen Dahlgren
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843:Heechee Saga
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486:. Retrieved
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436:. Retrieved
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150:released by
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78:
52:Publisher(s)
40:Developer(s)
910:Video games
796:Boffo Games
172:, in 1993.
88:Platform(s)
62:Designer(s)
941:Categories
765:Mike Verdu
669:Death Gate
438:2019-12-24
414:References
365:Planetfall
261:deep space
156:Mike Verdu
148:video game
143:is a 1992
69:Mike Verdu
962:DOS games
801:RealSound
760:Bob Bates
616:Timequest
532:MobyGames
513:(22): 44.
401:Timequest
359:Starcross
336:Reception
310:paradoxes
121:Adventure
106:June 1992
690:Shannara
432:Archived
231:Synopsis
183:Gameplay
112:Genre(s)
918:Gateway
865:Gateway
791:Infocom
623:Gateway
541:in the
538:Gateway
505:Gateway
378:Gateway
370:Gateway
354:Gateway
329:Gateway
246:Heechee
236:Setting
127:Mode(s)
103:Release
97:Windows
80:Heechee
22:Gateway
753:People
488:4 July
75:Series
850:Books
714:Other
346:'
242:Venus
490:2014
404:and
284:The
280:Plot
530:at
362:or
214:.
162:'s
93:DOS
943::
480:.
430:.
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119:,
95:,
856:"
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221:)
217:(
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
