(http://www.monochrom.at/english/pictures/blog-suzoed.jpg)
People of the world, you, who sit in your superficially secure third countries!
Soviet Unterzoegersdorf (pronounced 'oon-taa-tsee-gars-doorf') is the last existing appanage republic of the USSR. The enclave maintains no diplomatic relationship with the surrounding so-called 'Republic of Austria' or with the Fortress 'European Union'. The downfall of her motherland -- the Soviet Union -- in the early 1990s had a particularly bad effect on the country's economic situation.
It is a great challenge to secure survival for the small but proud confederation. External reactionary forces put the country in danger. It's a lack of respect due to a morally corrupted and perhaps even non-existing unity of the peoples. The goal of a glorious future is almost unreachable.
But there are a handful of people who don't give up on a vision for a better tomorrow. Let us tell you the stories of the brave citizens in the beautiful little country of Soviet Unterzoegersdorf.
It's a story that will go into history.
Game for IBM PC.
Windows or Linux/BSD.
Russian with English or German subtitles.
Appealing graphical game interface.
Creative Commons License.
Featuring music by 'Negativland', Jazz Dance Combinat 'Vibemaster', 'Motion Picture Expert Group', 'cccp.at', Joerg Piringer and others.
Website & Download:
http://www.monochrom.at/suz-game/
(http://www.monochrom.at/suz-game/images/screenshot-640x480.jpg)
BoingBoing-article:
http://www.boingboing.net/2005/09/04/monochroms_new_vidga.html
I am trying to figure out why no one has commented on this game. I downloaded it and have played part of it. Really this game reminds me of the Devils Shroud. The puzzles are not quite as hard, but the Devils Shroud was beyond challenging to me. I hope more people will download this game (especially since I am sure there will come a time that I need hints). The file size is quite large, but has voice and music. There are also cutscenes, well at least one that I know of. With DSL it took me about 10 mins to download.
Interesting looking game. Too bad I'll never get to play it. I don't think anyone with a dail up connection, such as myself, will ever get to play it. 100 + mb's to download, thats just too taxing. Well maybe I'll get to read a review and find out how it plays.
~Grav~
Only played for five minutes, but I LOVE what I see! Such a unique location, character, and story. You really captured the atmosphere well. Please don't do a english voice translation, as it really sounds authentic the way it is. Reading it with english subtitles is perfect.
I will comment more when I play more, but for now I am very impressed.
thanks to all for your feedback...
@gravity: if you're really interessted in playing the game... there might be an option soon to get the game via mailorder from monochrom.at (comes with 4-colored-cover in a dvd-sleeve) just send a mail to suz-team@monochrom.at
though depending on your location the shipping costs here from vienna might expend the costs for simple downloading it with your phone modem... ;)
@dave: don't worry... "russian with subtitles" ist what it's meant to be and it will stay that way also in the sequels... (subtitles may be available in other languages some time)
anyway, some austrian or american characters that might appear in the sequels will speak german or english of course... ultimate "hyper-realism"... sort of... ;)
Just finished the game..enjoyed it and loved how one could die in certain situations..esp with the dead chickens! ;D took me awhile to figure that one out. :-\. I know you plan on making more and left us with a 'cliffhanger' but were there supposed to be items left over like the coke and fish can. etc..? Great work by the way, liked the realism. Appreciated how you could change the music, liked the atmosphere but kinda thought the virtual area was kinda hokey, out of place..maybe it was just me but anyways, i really did like it. Lookin forward to any sequel. The puzzles were just right, not too hard, not too easy. Would recommend, a GREAT PLAY!!
Downloading right now... soon a comment =)
Very much enjoying this, nice work.
Edit: A tip to everyone - save early, save often.
QuoteA tip to everyone - save early, save often.
The inability to delete/overwrite saved games make it an unpalatable task...
@mags_don: yes, the "virtual area" is completely out of place but thats what it's supposed to be... a spoof on 1980ies computer-mag illustrations and "future romanticism"... ;)
@Rui "Brisby" Pires: you should be able to overwrite the savegames at least when all slots are full... but you're absolutely right, we will definitely try to improve on the savegame interface...
again, thanks for your comments!
Hey, I know this is yet anouther non played it yet reply but just bear. How big would the download be if you took out all the music, sound, and voice files? Just wondering because if it would shrink the mb size down considerably then maybe us dial up users could download and play it. Maybe add the extra files as additional downloads for us to get piece by piece when time and patience allowed. Just a thought.
When the audio is removed and the game compressed it gets down to 34mb, it is a shame you'd only get to play without audio because the music and voice here adds so much to the game... but if that is the way it has to be, ok.
It is still probably more than you'd want to download in one go on dialup, without worrying about errors, perhaps if it is split into parts you could get it... http://scotch.agagames.com/mirror/suzoeg
Haven't finished it yet, a little stuck, but it's wonderful! One of my favorite AGS games, already.
Downloaded, it's a really nice game and yes without the speech and music it would definatly take away alot of the soviet atmosphere.
@scotch & gravity: splitting the resources for dial-up downloads basically seems to be a good idea... though i really don't like the idea of removing the audio from the game since it's easily half of the game's atmosphere... you would't want to watch a subtitled movie without sound just because it got subtitles... ;)
anyway thanks to scotch for providing the files, but please understand if we don't put the soundless version on our own servers. it would be too tempting to pick the smaller download for a tryout and miss essential parts of the presentation...
again sorry, if the game is not that dial-up friendly. i completely understand that such large downloads are a bit against the "philosophy" of AGS to provide "resource"-friendly games and downloads... anyway, i hope the quality compensates for the rather large download (though still very small compared to demo-downloads of some mainstream-bestseller-games).
btw. as we are permanently collecting feedback on the game we decided to (maybe) release a 1.1 version of it in the next weeks... next to some minor bugfixes, we'll try to optimize on sound-compression, sprite-sizes etc... to provide a more compact download also...
First off, thanks to scotch for splitting the game into smaller files. I'll have to download it tomorrow night (as to not have to worry about phone calls, etc) since its alread 5 am here.
I understand that without audio and such the over game is diminished but when you are stuck with such a bad internet connection, a dial up one at that, you learn to live with such diminishes. Oh, a little off topic but, I DO watch a good bit of foriegn movies, with sound off, while just reading the subtitles. Actually I watch a lot of movies, foriegn or not, without sound or subtitles. I'm wierd, what else can I say? :D
Thanks again.
Quote from: Gravity on Fri 09/09/2005 07:57:18
Hey, I know this is yet anouther non played it yet reply but just bear. How big would the download be if you took out all the music, sound, and voice files? Just wondering because if it would shrink the mb size down considerably then maybe us dial up users could download and play it. Maybe add the extra files as additional downloads for us to get piece by piece when time and patience allowed. Just a thought.
This might be another solution for you...
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?PHPSESSID=9a609add7a9860736fe5af2a5edab41eopic=22321.msg273000#msg273000
That, my friend, was a very amazing game.
Rats off to you! And I can't wait for the next installment.
The subtle joke with Forenso and the hole was one of the best jokes I've seen all year.
20 odd minutes on DSL. I can only imagine how long it'd take on dial up. :-\
I think I found a glitch. When you pick the tin plate bucket/ bucket with water, you see three buckets in your inventory.
Oh and when you go near the nuclear compost area, your character turns green.
Quote from: Trish on Sat 10/09/2005 20:38:08
I think I found a glitch. When you pick the tin plate bucket/ bucket with water, you see three buckets in your inventory.
strange, the code should be correct (as it is quite simple) and i can't reproduce the error... though i will look into it. thanks
Quote from: TrishOh and when you go near the nuclear compost area, your character turns green.
radioactivity makes people glow in green color. that's just natural... don't you know? ;)
<quote>anyway thanks to scotch for providing the files, but please understand if we don't put the soundless version on our own servers. it would be too tempting to pick the smaller download for a tryout and miss essential parts of the presentation...</quote>
Yes. I think it would be unfair to the folks who composed the music for the game...
Very interesting game!
It works on the mac too - just choose the Linux version. For english edit acsetup.cfg and add translation=english on the line after [language]. It needs a carriage return.
Quote from: SteveMcCrea on Sun 11/09/2005 17:35:41
Very interesting game!
It works on the mac too - just choose the Linux version. For english edit acsetup.cfg and add translation=english on the line after [language]. It needs a carriage return.
hmm, nope. maybe you're running it inside of some environment? i get:
[pokeysneezy:~/Desktop/downloads/fr.8395.0.suzoeg-s1-v1_0MrX-linux]
douglas% ./ags
tcsh: ./ags: Exec format error. Binary file not executable.
[pokeysneezy:~/Desktop/downloads/fr.8395.0.suzoeg-s1-v1_0MrX-linux]
douglas% ./ags-setup
tcsh: ./ags-setup: Exec format error. Binary file not executable.
[pokeysneezy:~/Desktop/downloads/fr.8395.0.suzoeg-s1-v1_0MrX-linux]
douglas% ./suzoeg
tcsh: ./suzoeg: Exec format error. Binary file not executable.
[pokeysneezy:~/Desktop/downloads/fr.8395.0.suzoeg-s1-v1_0MrX-linux]
douglas% ./setup
tcsh: ./setup: Exec format error. Binary file not executable.
[pokeysneezy:~/Desktop/downloads/fr.8395.0.suzoeg-s1-v1_0MrX-linux]
douglas% ./suzoeg
tcsh: ./suzoeg: Exec format error. Binary file not executable.
so OSX doesn't recognize the format of the binary, which makes sense,
since it's a linux binary! it would only work if it were written in
java or something... or maybe i don't understand...?
The problem is, did you install the AGS engine for MAC (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=21531.0)?
seems to be some kind of misunderstanding... since steve forgot to mention to use his mac-engine... ;)
anyway great job steve! we'll look into it, do some testing and try to find a (easy) way to make the game available for mac users soon...
Really a great game.
Any ideas when the 2nd level will be available ?
thx for this entertaining piece of game
thanks a lot. we're currently in the early stages for the story for the 2nd part... a lot of sprites and backgrounds have to be produced, so don't expect a release before 2nd quarter 2006... part 2 will also feature a bigger "world": e.g. you will be able to actually visit the village of soviet unterzoegersdorf with its residents. part II will also feature multiple playable characters and will definitly have a longer gaming time. that's all i can say for now... ;)
btw. the first one took us about 2 years from the first idea to the final release but we think we'll be a bit faster next time. it also was the first game we ever did... so, we'll see ;)
Funniest game I've played in a long time!
NEVER SURRENDER!
This game is amazingly funny - the character comments were great and I liked how there was such a large variety of them especially when trying to interact with things that couldn't be interacted with (not just repeating "you can't do that" or "that doesn't make sense" over and over again). There was obviously a lot of thought put into the little things in this game (like the saved games being given a file number, the different selections that can be made on the radio system, etc.) and that's always a nice touch.
The puzzles can be a little bit wacky but they always made sense within the framework of the game and were unique, fun, and not mind-numbingly-want-to-stab-yourself-in-the-eye-difficult.
My only complaint (and it was brought up previously) was the inability to save over previous saves until all the slots were full but this is a minor thing when looking at the grand scheme of things.
I'm looking forward to the next 2 installments - hilarious way to end the first game by the way.
Very good game thanks!
Though towards the end of the game I needed plenty of hints!
I'm currently downloading it, but for the 56k usres:
What about an internet caffee. I used to download tons of games from coffee house when i didn't even have an internet connection at home.
Just find 5-6 10-100 however many games you want, that would fit into a CD and go to a coffee with fast internet connection and TADA! You're done.
At least here in London, you can find Fast internet at 1 GBP an hour. It is worth it for 5 or 10 games, at least to my hummble opinion...
I may have found a bug... if someone already mentioned this I'm sorry... on the first screen, I looked at the passport, and when I came out of that, my character was floating in the air, and all I could see was his feet!
Excellent game I must say.
+
* The high resolution fixes photo usage well, so it looks good (much better than old Sierra/Access games which used same technique).
* The music is really cool. Especially the ability to change it.
Soviet-tasting environment with jazz background sounds really funny :D
* Russian language IS Russian, unlike in US movies made during cold war.
-
* Much of the speech text goes missing in translation, and some aren't same the protagonist actually said.
* Whole themeing is a bit overdone. I understand that it's a parody, but still...
* Game objectives are very unclear.
Still, an excellent piece of work and definetly very original one!
good review of the game of "adventure europe"
http://www.adventure-eu.com/index.php?option=com_contentask=view&id=106&Itemid=
(tinyurl: http://tinyurl.com/9m9p5 )
Really nice game. I'm not sure how I feel about having to burn my own country's flag (I may not agree with what this country is doing, but I still have respect for the flag... I know it's just a game, but it was still a little unsettling for me)... but it was still a really good game. The puzzles made sense and were very well put together. I loved the humor as well. Nice work. I'm looking forward to part 2. :)
Hi Potch, about the Burning of the US-Flag (one may discuss US-Politics of course, but that would be definitely offtopic here): I think, it absolutely fits the theme of Soviet-Unterzögersdorf. Those Soviet-Unterzögersdorfer people are still pre-end of the cold war and their enemies are obviously those evil :) US-Oberzögersdorfers (btw: Unter=under and Ober=upper, these are two little villages in lower austria, that do exist for real, just not with the prefixes US and Sowjet). So: Burning the American Flag is in the setting of the weirdness of the game-world something absolutely logical.
So: Just take it as a game (you did it anyway, as I read in your post), those little things (amongst many others) are the things, that add much to the great atmosphere of the game.
Though a little bit short (but aren't all good games too short?), I absolutely loved this game, and to be honest: I somehow love this soviet-nostalgia :). Can't wait to see more!
chris
plus, it doesn't burn if you'll notice, at all
I've just located Sowjet-Unterzögersdorf in Google Earth. Unfortunately I cannot upload attachements here, but here is the .kml-source. Just create a text-file suz.kml and copy this text into it and then open this suz.kml in Google Earth :)
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<kml xmlns="http://earth.google.com/kml/2.0">
<Placemark>
Ã, <name>Sowjet Unterzögersdorf</name>
Ã, <LookAt>
Ã, Ã, <longitude>16.17222223945461</longitude>
Ã, Ã, <latitude>48.38205990214739</latitude>
Ã, Ã, <range>1887.916587270997</range>
Ã, Ã, <tilt>-6.160676633635109e-011</tilt>
Ã, Ã, <heading>0.004149413272241651</heading>
Ã, </LookAt>
Ã, <styleUrl>root://styleMaps#default+nicon=0x307+hicon=0x317</styleUrl>
Ã, <Style>
Ã, Ã, <IconStyle>
Ã, Ã, Ã, <Icon>
Ã, Ã, Ã, Ã, <href>root://icons/palette-3.png</href>
Ã, Ã, Ã, Ã, <x>64</x>
Ã, Ã, Ã, Ã, <y>96</y>
Ã, Ã, Ã, Ã, <w>32</w>
Ã, Ã, Ã, Ã, <h>32</h>
Ã, Ã, Ã, </Icon>
Ã, Ã, </IconStyle>
Ã, </Style>
Ã, <Point>
Ã, Ã, <coordinates>16.17018214919759,48.38191270665359,0</coordinates>
Ã, </Point>
</Placemark>
</kml>
Great stuff!
By the way for non-XP users (who may not be able to use Google Earth), or for those who don't want to install it, you may also use web based Google Map (http://maps.google.com) (which the AGSer MAP is now based on), and here's where Sowjet-Unterzögersdorf is located (http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=48.382060,16.172222&spn=0.019983,0.040280=k&hl=en).
Quote from: Gilbot V7000a on Fri 16/09/2005 10:48:45where Sowjet-Unterzögersdorf is located.
Yes, ownage! Geography!
In the middle of the map you can find Soviet Unterzögersdorf -- surrounded by the 'Republic of Austria'. The village to the west is US Oberzögersdorf. Of course it's part of Austria, too... the inhabitants just think the US armed forces will protect them if they call themselves 'US'.
Greetings!
Johannes
Thanx for your nice feedback!
Quote from: InCreator on Thu 15/09/2005 01:05:33Much of the speech text goes missing in translation, and some aren't same the protagonist actually said.
That's the basic philosophical dilemma of translation. Transferring cultural ideas doesn't work 1:1 ;-)
We wrote the basic story in German and one translation team finished the Russian text and one the English script.
... and we have a few technical bugs where we mixed up the mpegs ;-)
We'll fix that in version 1.1....
Greetings
Johannes
Soviet Unterzoegersdorf / The Adventure Game / Sector 1 is finally available for Mac OSX (G4+ recommended).
Many thanks to Philipp ( http://tage.im-all.net/ ) and respect to the wonderful OSX port team!
http://www.monochrom.at/suz-game/
mutednoise.com interview about the game:
http://mutednoise.com/article.cfm?article=Soviet-Game-of-Future-Lost
Quote: "Trying to summarize what Soviet Unterzoegersdorf is about is as easy as pronouncing its name. The free game, created by Austrian art-technology-philosophists monochrom, starts with a straight-forward premise that quickly explodes with quirky humor, challenging stereotypes, and intriguing play. As the name implies, Soviet Unterzoegersdorf tells the fictitious story of the last USSR republic. mutednoise was able to catch up with Johannes Grenzfurthner to talk about the work."
(http://monochrom.sil.at/suzoeg_edge112005_small.jpg)
bigger scan: http://monochrom.sil.at/suzoeg_edge112005.jpg
The name says Sector 1; are they planning on making more? ???
Quote from: TheCheese33 on Sun 16/10/2005 15:19:39
The name says Sector 1; are they planning on making more? ???
yes! see the previous page of this thread... or the project's website. it's the first part of a trilogy... but don't expect the 2nd part to be released before mid 2006...
-> http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=22535.msg277228#msg277228
here's a very nice "underdogs" review
"two thumbs up"
http://www.the-underdogs.org/game.php?gameid=5265
Hehehe, Soviet Unterzoegersdorf had me laughing all the way to the finish. The atmosphere with the musical selections and the graphics and the character and everything worked very well. The dying animations are classic. := Overall, the game is a gem, although I was expecting a longer game given the size of the download. I underestimated how big music tracks can be I guess.
MOLODZI!!!
Pozdravliaiu.
Awesome game so far, very good atmosphere and very funny :)
I also found an exception:
---------------------------
Illegal exception
---------------------------
An exception 0xC0000005 occured in ACWIN.EXE at EIP = 0x7C911F52 ; program pointer is +5, ACI version 2.62.772, gtags (2,0)
AGS cannot continue, this exception was fatal. Please note down the numbers above, remember what you were doing at the time and notify CJ on the Tech forum.
(Global script line 666)
Most versions of Windows allow you to press Ctrl+C now to copy this entire message to the clipboard for easy reporting.
---------------------------
OK
---------------------------
This happened when I clicked the chair next to the green gate (with the keypad.) I cannot reproduce it, so it may have been caused by something else.
Great funny game! Could have done with some more character interaction though.
the main character's love interest is hot.
Yona-Kit, very impressive game so far! I'm planning on designing some games, and I can only hope to make one as detailed. One suggestion, if it is feasable - alter around a few of the main characters "action movements" - by that i mean, when he's commenting on something he *always* throws his hands around in the exact same way... it would be nice to vary the animation so he doesn't do the exact same thing every couple of seconds.
Also, is there a "walkthrough" of Soviet Unterzoegersdorf? I searched your site, and the web, and didn't find one. I'm stuck (embarassingly lol) trying to figure out both "what the heck do I do in Virtual Reality" and where do I get rid of the chickens? *grin*
Ok, got rid of the chickens, no need to figure that one out any longer :)
Quote from: Traveler on Sun 13/11/2005 01:02:03
Awesome game so far, very good atmosphere and very funny :)
I also found an exception:
---------------------------
Illegal exception
---------------------------
An exception 0xC0000005 occured in ACWIN.EXE at EIP = 0x7C911F52 ; program pointer is +5, ACI version 2.62.772, gtags (2,0)
AGS cannot continue, this exception was fatal. Please note down the numbers above, remember what you were doing at the time and notify CJ on the Tech forum.
(Global script line 666)
Most versions of Windows allow you to press Ctrl+C now to copy this entire message to the clipboard for easy reporting.
---------------------------
OK
---------------------------
This happened when I clicked the chair next to the green gate (with the keypad.) I cannot reproduce it, so it may have been caused by something else.
Typical... :P
Ok, questions...
Spoiler
The tied-up guy is screaming like a little girl and won't help, not sure what to do with him
and
Spoiler
I activated the Virtual Reality Sim but have no idea what to do in it.
I'm pretty much stuck, and am basically running around with a chicken lol
Theres already a thread on this game in the hints and tips section -
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=22546.0
you should find out your answers on there
seems cool. downloading
Found a spelling error in the game...
Spoiler
In the Atheist place, when you look at the robot it says "It can tell the difference between a whole in the ground and yadda yadda" - obviously, you meant hole, not whole.
Found another...
Spoiler
When you have used the Godless Machine, and it pops out a Coca-Cola, you have a mispelling: This drink has closer linked should be "this drink has closer links"
Hi,
I just wanted to give the game a try, but the sound doesn't work. Any suggestions?
I use the linux-version on Xubuntu Feisty Fawn.