Gadget:Invention, Travel, & Adventure

Gadget: Invention, Travel, & Adventure (or Gadget: Past as Future) is a videogame or interactive movie, first released by Synergy Interactive in 1993. Gadget resembles a point-and-click adventure game similar to Myst, but with a strictly linear storyline culminating in a fixed finale. Thus it tends to be classified more as an interactive movie rather than a videogame. The story centers around a future dominated by retro technology from the 1920s and 1930s, especially streamlined locomotives and flying machines.

The game was originally released on 1 CD in 1993 by Synergy Interactive. A special edition of the game, Gadget: Past as Future, was later released on 4 CD in 1998 by Cryo Interactive. A companion volume of additional art and background plot material, Inside Out with Gadget, was also available.

Plot
The game's plot takes place in an unspecified (albeit vaguely Eastern European) nation headed by the dictator Orlovsky. The protagonist is a government agent tasked with discovering the whereabouts of a missing scientist named Horselover Frost. He begins his quest in a third-floor room of a luxury hotel (which is in fact the headquarters of the government's intelligence arm). After collecting his belongings in a suitcase, the protagonist takes an elevator ride to the lobby, during which a boy replaces the case with another identical one containing various spy-related paraphernalia. In the lobby, the government's intelligence chief briefs the protagonist on his mission. The protagonist then moves to the central railway station. From this point on all the events of the story take place on trains or at the various stations (which include the national science institute) along the nation's main rail line. The player must engage in scripted conversations with various individuals, each of whom reveals pieces of information that advance the protagonist in his quest.

Credits
Directed by
 * Haruhiko Shono

Music Composed by
 * Koji Ueno

Story Developed by
 * Hirokazu Nabekura

Visuals
 * Haruhiko Shono
 * Minoru Kusakabe

Programming
 * Hideyuki Aida
 * Koji Katayama

Graphics
 * Isao Konaka

Englishing
 * David

Production Management
 * Yoshie Ikeda
 * Toshihiro Masumura
 * Eri Osada

Producer
 * Masanori Awata

Executive Producer
 * Takahiko Nagashima

Other
 * Akitsugo Doi
 * Hiroko Ichikawa
 * Tensay Ishiguro
 * Masaaki Shina
 * Yasuhiro Fujita
 * Kenji Kimura
 * Yasuo Ichige
 * Mayumi Tanaka
 * Masami Takahashi
 * Makoto Sekikawa
 * Akira Takahashi
 * Hiroyuki Miura
 * Shouzou Fuse
 * Taizo Sugihara
 * Tetsuko Ohta

Reception
The game was reviewed in 1994 in Dragon #212 by Ken Rolston in the "Eye of the Monitor" column. Rolston gave the game a very positive review, stating "I'm a total fan of Gadget." According to Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro (director of Hellboy and Pan's Labyrinth), Gadget was "very influential on movies like Dark City and The Matrix."