lol username Posted August 2, 2015 Share Posted August 2, 2015 I came across this about four months ago but forgot to post about it: https://archive.org/details/FOL0297Lego Archive.org says it's in German, but it's actually international, you select a language on startup. It's pretty impressive for its time, it's a pre-rendered 3D Technic lab, you can smoothly look around left/right/up/down by clicking and dragging, and move to different locations by clicking there (think Myst 3 or 4, Google Street View, stuff like that). You plug your helmet into different consoles to get 3D visualizations of sets, watch videos, play minigames, etc. There's also some gamey-ness to it, for example if you go underwater without using an oxygen tank you have a very limited air supply. The performance was pretty bad on the VM I was using so I didn't explore all of it, but here's some screenshots. Does anybody have more info on how this was distributed? Archive.org says Fun Online, but that appears to be strictly a German thing and this is an international promo disc. There's got to be more to it. Here's pictures of the case, courtesy of somebody selling it online: And while trying to find more info on it I came across this site, which lists "Cyberlab 98" as another Technic promo disc: http://www.derstein.de/hauptteil_cds.html Bricklink seems to say it's related to the CyberMaster set... https://alpha.bricklink.com/pages/clone/catalogitem.page?G=926957UK But somebody here on RRU said they got it "from serial" (cereal?), indicating it was also more of a general promotional thing: I haven't looked for an ISO of it, but if anybody has more info it'd be nice to know. emily 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emily Posted August 3, 2015 Share Posted August 3, 2015 This looks really interesting but I don't want to have to go through the process of getting a VM running just for it. It's interesting that Cyberlab 98, while definitely not being the actual CyberMaster software, seems to have been included instead of the standard software in the special plastic case version. Does that mean it contains all of the CyberMaster stuff on it? And if so, why would they do that for a CD apparently used for more general promotion? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IncogM Posted August 3, 2015 Share Posted August 3, 2015 (edited) I've downloaded the ISO. If I have the free time tomorrow, I'll boot up my XP laptop and see how it does. (Got a fully working 12 year old laptop at a garage sale for a dollar a few months ago. Much easier than actually getting any of these games to work on modern hardware.) Updates: Got it working. Had to install Quicktime, that horrible demon of '90s software. Gonna post thoughts as I have them. "Built" the pneumatic claw grabber for the submarine by clicking and dragging parts into not-quite obvious outlines. Click on the land console, taken to a catalog of technic sets based on ground vehicles. I remember being 8 or 9 and wanting this set so bad: The land based game is a racer with bad controls. You hold control to go and you gotta tap the arrow keeps to move around the corners, but its more like your car just pivots 15 degrees. If you don't time it perfectly with the curve, your car just stops. Then you pivot and then immediately stop a car length away because you didn't time the next pivot right. Clicked on something by accident (big door labeled 03) and ended up on this screen saying I'm not allowed to look at next years sets. Not pictured is the incredibly loud siren that plays constantly until you leave the screen. Tried out door number 02 and it loaded up this screen. Click on the truck lets you have a rotate-able view of the set. Just like the catalogs available at the three consoles. Since door 2 opens up to a single set, a set that I'm pretty sure was a summer/fall release in '97, and Door 3 screams at you for trying to look at '98 sets, I check what door 1 does Absolutely nothing. Because thats the door you "entered" through. The implication here is that they wanted to do a Techlab 02 for the Summer/Fall '97 sets and a Techlab 03 for the first '98 sets. Guess that never came to fruition. Dive underwater to go to the sea console or watch a video of the sub in action. The video ends up being an ad for the version of the sub set that came with a CD too. Sub game has you grabbing radioactive waste being dumped by pirates, but its almost impossible to actually play due to bad controls. Sub has a momentum mechanic that makes it tedious to turn the opposite direction and by the time you do, you've built up enough momentum that you fly past the barrel you wanted anyway. Went up the elevator to the air section. Basically just a helicopter on display, the catalog, and the game. The air game also suffers from iffy controls, but its the best of the three. It has a different, but equally bad momentum mechanic like the sub game, but just rapidly tapping the arrow keys makes the game playable-ish. However sometimes you can't fly infront of those background buildings without gaining damage but most of the time you can? I dunno. After I was done I noticed the map key Its kinda neat that each one of those dots shows the places you can stand to look around the lab. All in all, 8 year old me would have loved this if the games had actually been playable. But they're not. And they're not even close to fun. Spent too much time/money on the CGI video trying to sell the sub set than the actual minigames. I didn't really find out anything else though. No real information about how the CD was acquired or anything, which isn't too surprising. Although I feel like if it came in a box of cereal it would have had a cereal company name somewhere. Edited August 3, 2015 by IncogM Updates on iso lol username and emily 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emily Posted August 3, 2015 Share Posted August 3, 2015 (edited) Glad you got it running. When you said XP I was like "oh, duh" and pulled out an old laptop to try and get it to run. Unfortunately the laptop had a newer version of Quicktime that the game didn't like, and when I uninstalled it and installed Quicktime from the disc I started getting a BSoD whenever I launched it. But the part up to the stuff requiring Quicktime did work, and that's enough to hear that Tony Wedgewood did the voiceover, which is cool. In general these CDs are pretty obviously the product of Advance and, in particular, Christian Faber, who was creative director or whatever for Technic at the time. The whole lab exploration element echoes Faber's original ideas for the Mata Nui online game, and the idea of a CGI (and Quicktime) heavy CD that lets you explore a LEGO world carried over into the first few BIONICLE product lines as well. For a while now I've been itching to start picking up the Technic sets that were packaged with CDs - I get that the games aren't too good here (nor are they in the other CDs, from what I gather) but it's more the atmosphere and presentation that interests me than anything else. Oh and re: Techlab 02, 03 etc. it does seem that Cyberlab 98 came out of the concepts for those, perhaps just with more of a bent on CyberMaster and a name that didn't tether it to older discs. Edited August 3, 2015 by Pereki Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IncogM Posted August 3, 2015 Share Posted August 3, 2015 (edited) It definitely feels like they had much more planned. Things like having oxygen meter, but if you go into the water without the scuba tank, you just instantly run out of air anyway. Then I didn't notice if it even went down when you had the tank. A health meter that does nothing. Was this something like a proof-of-concept that convinced someone to fund MNOG? Edit: Just remembered this is 3 years before MNOG. Throwbots weren't even a thing yet. Edited August 3, 2015 by IncogM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emily Posted August 3, 2015 Share Posted August 3, 2015 Basically MNOG wasn't part of the whole plan for BIONICLE at first, but some guy (who I can't remember the name of atm) pushed for a game and vouched for Templar as a team with the ability to carry the BIONICLE story and do it justice. So finally they were just like "yeah, okay, have them do a thing. Can't hurt I guess." Then they flew Templar out to meet with Faber to ensure they had a good grasp on how to work within the stylistic parameters. You can see basically what he gave them to work with here. So yeah, Myst-inspired interactive environment that you explore in first person - he even mentions 3D in there, which is something this CD has and MNOG lacks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emily Posted October 11, 2015 Share Posted October 11, 2015 (edited) Tangentially related at least, I just learned that BioMedia Project has a lot more CDs on their site than they have listed on Project Brick - they've got all of the Technic software that was packed in with sets, even The Mission (which is super super rare)! Though it looks like they only have the Dutch Cybermaster software. Edited October 11, 2015 by Pereki lol username 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LimeKiller Posted October 15, 2015 Share Posted October 15, 2015 Oh -- hey. I missed this topic the first time around. My third-grade teacher had this in her games collection in the classroom. I remember having no idea what it was, since I knew it wasn't one of the LEGO Media/Software games. I wish I knew how she got it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pranciblad Posted October 16, 2015 Share Posted October 16, 2015 To bad they never made a offcial technic video game Coulda sworn at least one dev was working on a full-fledged TECHNIC game back in the day. Can't remember the specifics, but someone around here probably knows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lol username Posted October 16, 2015 Author Share Posted October 16, 2015 To bad they never made a offcial technic video game Coulda sworn at least one dev was working on a full-fledged TECHNIC game back in the day. Can't remember the specifics, but someone around here probably knows. Yeah, Dave Upchurch (a producer for various LEGO games) mentioned that in my conversation with him. I'm too lazy to dig up the topic for it but I'll just quote the emails, they're the source anyway. I remember working on a LEGO Technics game featuring vehicles exploring an alien world. You collected bricks and used morphing stations to change your vehicle between different forms, each of which had different abilities, and used them at the right time and place to get past obstacles in your way. It didn't get very far - just an early demo. We lost confidence in the developer to deliver, so canned it. The Technics project never got beyond a design doc, some concept art and a rudimentary landscape routine - progress was ridiculously slow, hence the canning. emily 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emily Posted October 17, 2015 Share Posted October 17, 2015 That, and today Technic is aimed mostly at adults, not teenagers like it was then. See: cyberpunk dystopia death-vehicles versus the reasonably realistic models of real-world machines seen today. IncogM 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pranciblad Posted October 17, 2015 Share Posted October 17, 2015 (edited) saddly with out technic figs i doubt they will make one today I do admit that Technic-figs were neat and the lack of an equivalent today is meh. But the strictly realistic scale-model route the line is taking today has no real need for them. That, and today Technic is aimed mostly at adults, not teenagers like it was then. See: cyberpunk dystopia death-vehicles versus the reasonably realistic models of real-world machines seen today. Basically this. Edited October 17, 2015 by Pranciblad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lol username Posted October 17, 2015 Author Share Posted October 17, 2015 cyberpunk dystopia death-vehicles I do want another theme like this though with out figs thre is no life IncogM and Quisoves Potoo 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quisoves Potoo Posted October 17, 2015 Share Posted October 17, 2015 That, and today Technic is aimed mostly at adults, not teenagers like it was then. See: cyberpunk dystopia death-vehicles versus the reasonably realistic models of real-world machines seen today. Yeah, starting in 2003, the general aesthetic of Technic went from "weird mechanical beauty!" to "cool hardware!" Which bothers me, as I've never been particularly taken by hardware stores. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fluffy Cupcake Posted October 25, 2015 Share Posted October 25, 2015 I may be late, and I may not know what exactly is going on in this topic, but that Technic stuff you found looks awesome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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