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On April 26, 2006, Videotron ended the Videoway service in Quebec Canada, a subscription-based, interactive television service. It took with it games such as Mr Chin, Fou du Roi, and darts. These games disappeared forever, leaving only vague memories. Even on the internet, with almost infinite access to the combined knowledge of humankind, very little information and only a few images can be found. The Videoway service and its dedicated terminal granted access to premium tv content, while also serving as a sort of primitive Internet and video game console, as the terminal contained a custom-built 8-bit computer. Users could consult weather forecasts, pay bills, access entertainment news, send messages to other users, or even participate in a dating service, with the information being transmitted through the TV cable rather than a phone line through a Canadian variant of the Videotex technology. Likewise, the games were downloaded to the terminal’s RAM every time you picked them from the menu, and deleted when you were done. Temporel Inc, better known as "the game with the pyramid", was probably the most notable and memorable game offered on the service. Temporel was an original time-traveling adventure game taking place entirely within an Egyptian pyramid. While originally developed in French, an English-language version was also available in England at the time, and possibly along the Canadian East Coast as well. By a stroke of luck, a recording of the game was made on videocassette just before the end of the service, allowing it to be recreated in a playable version today. Take a journey through figurative time with this real time capsule of a small part of the Quebec 90s. As an employee of the titular Temporel, inc. in the year 3014, you are tasked with traveling to the Egypt of 13,000 years ago in order to study the last ice age. Unfortunately, due to lax maintenance, your space-and-time-travelling ship encounters technical difficulties along the way, forcing you to land on top of a pyramid. You’re just one diamond-based power generator short of completing your repairs when the pharaoh’s soldiers surprise you, knocking you out and leaving you trapped in a room at the bottom of the pyramid. Your goal, then, is to make it back to the top, and hopefully find a diamond along the way to power your ship with. |
