the cutting room mirror

Out of This World (3DO)

Out of This World is a game about a scientist named Lester Knight Chaykin, who has the fantastic idea of performing an experiment during a thunderstorm. As a result, lightning strikes his lab, teleporting him... Out of This World.

Unfortunately, the alien world he finds himself on is hostile, so he and his new (and only) alien friend must do everything they can to survive.

This needs some investigation.
Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page.
Specifically: What could the files that aren't sound data contain?

Music Loop Points#

This page or section needs more audio.
There's a whole lotta words here, but not enough audio. Please fix this.
Specifically: Put up the music files with loops, to see how they're actually supposed to sound.

Some of the songs in the game's soundtrack have loop points in their files, which go unused in-game. Instead, the tracks play from the start. Notable examples are;

  • Song 26 (132480 samples, loop starts at 3.0041 seconds)
  • Song 23 (89020 samples, loop starts at 2.0186 seconds)
  • Song 18 (77344 samples, loop starts at 1.7538 seconds)

NOTE: The information is taken through Audacity, after printing metadata with VGMSTREAM! Also, Song 18's loop point is incorrectly placed and makes a click... In addition, songs #10 and #25 both have loop points that however are at the start of the tracks.

Legacy Sounds#

Surprisingly, the 3DO version of Out of This World has a few leftover sound effects that still have the Amiga/PC-DOS feel. Some of them are either completely unused and instead are replaced with .AIFC music audio that have the sound effects put into the floppy disk-like FMVs.

A wind sound effect, either completely unused or is impossible to hear with the music in the way. Also probably replaced with wind inside the intro.

Like the wind sound effect, Lester's car's braking sound is unused here. The driving and braking is imbedded into the .AIFC SDX2 audio track.

The keypad sound effect normally heard in PC versions of Out of This World/Another World, the 3DO version instead has the sounds, like mentioned before, imbedded into the music audio for the intro.

Sound effect for Lester's car's door closing shut, there is no such sound in the 3DO version's intro.

Another wind sound effect.

Footstep sound normally heard in the intro, when Lester goes up to the door and we see his sleek shoes. (You may have figured out by now the sounds are played at varying speeds during the FMVs on PC and other systems!)

Lester Chaykin taking a sip from his drink.

Lester now actually drinking his beverage.

Yet another wind-like sound effect.

Some choir sound effect? Normally heard when looking out the window.

The last choir sound effect played, when near the end of the cutscene of looking out the window.

An instrument sound, that got left in when switching to CD-quality music audio.

There's no doubt this instrument sounds to be related to an unused song in the DOS version.

Another instrument sound... of a drum.

The *probably* last unused/legacy Out of This World/Another World sound effect, also an instrument sound that sounds like a drum.

Unused Passwords#

  • HHFL - Goes to a black screen, it is possible to move and shoot.
  • KRTD - Goes directly to the Ending. It is never shown in-game.

Unused Text#

Computer OS#

Copyright } 1997 Cortland Computer, Inc.
All rights reserved.

GS/OS Version 7.03
II Infinitum!

The computer from the introduction interestingly has an unused version of the fake boot screen (though Cortland instead of Peanut).

Easter Eggs#

Hidden Picture#

An Easter egg picture. To access it you need to have seen the full Interplay logo video.

Hold buttons L and R while on the New Game/Continue screen. After some time, instead of the normal Interplay logo, a different picture will appear, featuring programmer Rebecca "Burger" Heineman and Interplay boss Brian Fargo.

This image also appears in Borrowed Time and Wolfenstein 3D for Macintosh, which was coded by the same person.

Hidden Game#

Another Easter egg, which this time is a whole game. To access it, go to the Password Screen, and try the code BRGR.

The code is very likely a reference to Rebecca "Burger" Heineman, who ported Out of This World to 3DO and very likely snuck this in when nobody was looking.

Password

Title Screen

Gameplay

The game is only about scoring, and is the COMPLETE REVERSE of a breakout game.

You must hold off the stalactites before they get bigger by getting under them while avoiding the balls.

Regional Differences#

Title Screen#

As this game was released with different names in each region, the title screen changes to suit. Unlike the SNES port, the Japanese one has no notable changes except the title.

JP

EU

US

Title Songs#

The 3DO port happens to have two different title songs, one only used in the US and another one for Europe and Japan. The intro demo uses the full US title song for all regions.

JP/EU

US

References#


  1. GDR スリーディーオー ソフト一覧 1994年 - 3DO Software List 1994↩︎
  2. "Out" is out! - rec.games.video.3do↩︎
  3. UK release dates/titles from Calculus - rec.games.video.3do↩︎