Fantavision

The setting, to start with at least, is a cityscape at night with illuminated skyscrapers, bridges, towers and other landmarks. As each level progresses you move slowly through the three dimensional city, seeing more views as you go. The soundtrack is lightly beat driven fluffy dance music.

We are putting on a firework display for the city. Fireworks are launched from the bottom of the screen and we control a cursor and a "select" button that we can use to highlight fireworks while they are in flight. We have a "detonate" button that will cause our selected fireworks to explode. Different fireworks explode in different beautiful patterns and as the sparks fall, if they touch another firework of the same colour they will cause it to explode too. We can create a wonderful show for the people of this city!

The basic idea is to select a group of fireworks of the same colour and detonate them all together. The more fireworks in the group, the more points you score. Secondary explosions caused by touching are added to your group. There are three colours (red, green and blue) and you can normally only have one colour in your group at a time. But, there are also special multicoloured fireworks that can join any group. They can also let you switch colour in the middle of a group, allowing you to build large multicoloured groups for more points!

But you have to be quick! If you leave a firework too long before detonating it counts as a miss and you lose "health". When your health reaches zero the game is over. You can increase health by exploding big groups and by collecting special bonus fireworks as they appear. Star shaped fireworks contribute to the word "starmine" and when it is complete a bright fiery comet is launched. If you capture and detonate this you are taken to starmine mode, a kind of bonus level with all the fireworks you can eat! You can build massive, self-sustaining groups to boost your score.

All the way through a calm, feminine voice describes your explosions and encourages you when you do well. She is like the computer from Babylon 5, reassuringly omnipresent and always supportive. As you complete a level you can save your display for later. Sometimes you get a small video clip of happy children playing with their toys, a glimpse into an ideal family. The music changes with each level, as do the settings. We don't stay in the city for long. I won't give more away now (because I haven't got much further myself!)

Saved displays can be used in replay mode, where you become one of the spectators. As your display unfolds you can control camera angles and movements, weather conditions and viewpoints. You can also overlay special effects, creating psychedelic patterns, blurry blobfests and rushing tunnels. This is a whole new dimension to the game!

For some Fantavision is a game of quick strategy and efficient planning. For others it is a game of reactions and frantic button pushing. For a few it is a spectacle, a piece of interactive art to enjoy and marvel at. For me it is all those things and I love it. It is a happy game! Above all, it is different, and for that I cherish it!

Have you hugged your Fantavision today? Go on, put on a display!

Before the Sony PS2, there was the PS/2. And around that time, there was a computer called the Apple IIGS. Fantavision for the IIGS was a vector drawing program that created animation by the vertices in each cel. There were some nice morphing effects done in Fantavision. This idea of client-side tweening of vector animations would later be revived in Macromedia's Flash.

This only shows how trademarks that have fallen into disuse can be revived as new trademarks without consumers noticing.

Ah yes, thank you for reviving my memory of this wonderfull program yerricde. I remember when I was in the 4th grade one of my teachers decided to have students design 'things' in Fatavision for some type of art exhibit. I worked and worked on my little piece and a few days later I submitted it to my teacher. I constructed a piece involing a rather unfortunate stick figure playing with a spiked flail. The next day I asked my teacher if she liked it, she replied in a high pitched nasal voice, "No, I think what you did was inappropriate". Aye, I felt crushed, I belive the tiny artist living inside me died that day.