Gadget: Invention, Travel, and Adventure (1994) PC Playthrough - NintendoComplete
307A beginning to end playthrough of Synergy's 1994 Windows 3.1 interactive movie/adventure game, Gadget: Invention, Travel, and Adventure.
Gadget was a Japanese "multimedia" game that wasn't particularly interested in presenting itself as a traditional game. You play a mystery character who learns of a plot involving a scientist, Horselover, and his attempts to build something under a seemingly insidious veil of secrecy. You then jump on a steam-punk style train and travel throughout the city, speaking with fellow passengers and occasionally disembarking to explore stations and offices. It's all quite creepy, puzzling, and downright nonsensical in a way that only "evocative" pieces tend to be able to pull off.
It does make the player navigate pre-rendered CG environments, bearing some similarity to Myst. However, there is no puzzle solving whatsoever. As an interactive "experience" it feels more like a visual novel than anything else, with the only requirement typically to move forward being to hit the right trigger after speaking to the right people. There is one incredibly short and easy maze at the ending, but that hardly qualifies as a "game" per se.
This was a game that I remember seeing advertised constantly in magazines like PC Gamer and Computer Gaming World, and featuring pretty prominently on ads for mail-order places like Chips and Bits, but I never once came across the game in a real store. I'd always wanted to play it, since the screenshots of the graphics looked amazing by 1994 standards, but never got the chance.
I decided a few months ago to finally give it a try (being reminded of its existence by flipping through a few 90s magazines), and I have to say - of all the things I've read about this game, none of them really capture what the "game" itself is. That's not due to any deficiency on the part of writers; it's more that the game is so very different from just about any other that it's extremely difficult to put into words what it actually is. Anyways, I'm sure I that what I wrote above was just as poor at describing this game for anyone who doesn't already know what it is, but meh. I tried!
This is of the original 1994 English release. The game was "remastered" and rereleased in 1997 under the name "Gadget: Past as Future" on 4 CDs , whereas this version only occupied a single disc, in case you were wondering why everything was so incredibly grainy.
____
No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
NintendoComplete (http://www.nintendocomplete.com/) punches you in the face with in-depth reviews, screenshot archives, and music from classic 8-bit NES games!
Visit for the latest updates!
http://www.facebook.com/pages/NintendoComplete/540091756006560
https://twitter.com/nes_complete