The Lost World: Jurassic Park (arcade game)

The Lost World: Jurassic Park is a light gun arcade game from Sega. It was released in 1997, and is based on the film of the same name. The film's director, Steven Spielberg, received one of the arcade cabinets as a gift from Sega of America.^[2] It is also a follow-up to Sega's 1994 Jurassic Park arcade game. A third arcade game based on Jurassic Park III was made by Konami in 2001.

Gameplay

Ian Malcolm and Sarah Harding go missing after landing on Isla Sorna to conduct an investigation. A rescue team is sent to the island. The player controls one of two rangers, whose goal is to find Malcolm and Harding.^[3]

The game features five levels based on environments from the film, including a laboratory and a workers' village. Four of the levels feature a boss battle that must be won to advance the game. Boss enemies include Tyrannosaurus, Deinosuchus and Carnotaurus. Velociraptors are also featured as enemies throughout the game. Pachycephalosaurs, Compsognathus and venom-spitting Dilophosaurs are also encountered throughout the game. At times, the game presents the player with an opportunity to rescue a human who is being attacked by one or multiple dinosaurs. Killing the dinosaur(s) results in the human rewarding the player with either a temporary weapon upgrade or additional health.^[4][5]

Development

Sega's AM3 development division began developing the game in early 1997, after receiving permission from Universal Studios. Sega AM3 utilized Sega's Model 3 arcade system board, as Model 2 was not advanced enough for certain game features.^[2] Model 3 allowed the game to operate at 60 frames and 100,000 polygons per second.^[6] Early in development, the developers only had access to the film's original script. Action scenes from the script were added into the game. The developers also worked with the film's promotional crew. Level designs were inspired by the film's sets, which some of the developers later visited.^[2]

The developers originally considered adding a creature similar to the Loch Ness Monster, but later dropped the idea as it was decided it would have been awkward for the player to shoot. A Deinosuchus was used instead. The game's dinosaurs were designed from scratch by Sega AM3, as ILM's production sketches were unavailable. The Carnotaurus, which appeared in the original script for the film, was implemented into the game, as the developers expected ILM to create the creature for use in the film. The developers initially planned to make the two-player mode different from the one-player mode, in regard to routes the players would take or the types of dinosaurs they would encounter. This idea was scrapped due to time constraints.^[2]

Release

Special edition

By January 1998, an updated version of the game had been released in Japan, under the title of The Lost World Special. The new hydraulic game cabinet features seats that rotate and rock from side to side. A burst of air blows out at the player(s) whenever the Tyrannosaurus roars. The game was rewritten to more closely follow the film's plot. Some ideas that were scrapped from the original game were implemented into the Special game. Some of the game's levels were moved around from the original. The Carnotaurus was cut from the game and replaced with a final level of a Tyrannosaurus rampaging through San Diego.^[2]

Cancelled port

In January 1998, Sega AM3 said it would be impossible to port the game to the Sega Saturn, but expressed interest in a PC version.^[2] In August 1999, Sega AM3 was reportedly in the process of converting the game for release on the Sega Dreamcast in Japan in January 2000, with a possible U.S. release in the spring of 2000.^[7] These plans were cancelled by January 2001.^[8]

Other versions

A number of other games were released under the title The Lost World: Jurassic Park, including a pinball game and a number of home console games. These games were developed separately by different companies and featured completely different gameplay styles.

• Sega Genesis - The Lost World: Jurassic Park
• Sony Playstation and Sega Saturn - The Lost World: Jurassic Park
• Handheld game (Game.com, Game Boy, Game Gear) - The Lost World: Jurassic Park
• Pinball game - The Lost World: Jurassic Park

Reception

Johnny Ballgame of GamePro wrote that the game's graphics "are a giant leap forward for gun games in terms of sight and speed."^[6] Anthony Baize of AllGame rated The Lost World: Jurassic Park four and a half stars out of five, and wrote, "The programmers did an excellent job to make gamers feel as if they are in the middle of an island with crazed dinosaurs as far as the eye can see." Baize praised the graphics, writing that the game "is a masterpiece. The graphics look as if they have been lifted from its namesake movie. [...] The dinosaurs look and sound real. That is fairly amazing." However, Baize criticized the game's loud sounds, saying that "the deafening sound coming from the speakers may be The Lost World: Jurassic Park's only real flaw. There is a line where anything can be considered to be too loud, and The Lost World: Jurassic Park crosses that line. While the loud sound is supposed to engage the gamer thoroughly, it can be distracting. [...] The sound is a bit too loud, but that should not keep anyone from playing it."^[9]

References

External links

• The Lost World: Jurassic Park at the Killer List of Videogames