- Joined
- Jul 8, 2013
- Messages
- 1,250
DOWNLOAD HERE
Synnergist is a 1996 point and click adventure game with a graphical style resembling Noctopolis. It had pretty (unintentionally) funny FMV scenes as well as voice acting & animation.
It was notable for being Vicarious Visions' first video game - the company's founders supposedly made it in high school. Here's a plot blurb:
You can watch the game's introduction here:
Here's the interesting part. A magazine in the 90's called Coming Soon Magazine revealed that
I am seeking help in uncovering these secrets. the Vicarious Visions old website linked directly to that Coming Soon Magazine, and the current site links to the four fat chicks review which says that the secrets might exist.
About a year ago I found one of these secrets. I explained it on the vogons forum, but be warned that my explanation assumes you have basic knowledge of the game's structure.
Here's a video I made of the dialogue with the hooded stranger:
Now, looking through the files on the disc, I can get a glimpse into what the secrets are. The first two are encounters with this hooded stranger. The dialogue FMVs are stored in a folder called "CHARVID", then further separated into folders C01-C51 (separated by characters.) These are in .VID format. I can't play them using anything at my disposal. Changing the extension to .AVI gives me a glimpse into which characters are in what folder:
I cannot play these AVIs. Scrubbing through them with virtualdub gives me an error after a few frames.
However, in some of the folders are videos of these secret characters. For example:
So I've worked it out that there are 3 hidden scenes with character interaction. See this:
So, two of the encounters are with this hooded stranger. The other is with Karthik Bala, the co-founder of Vicarious Visions. I can trick the game into playing these videos during other character interaction. See this for example:
I have not gone through the trouble of getting all the videos to play through this method (which is really just renaming the files and creating a new .ISO). BUT I have played one from the second encounter with the hooded stranger, and he says "Take this, Tim!" or something like that, meaning he gives the player an item.
I believe I know what this item is for. Near the very end of the game, the player finds themselves revisiting the revolving cafe. Going into the unlocked security room (required to progress the game), the player can find a loose tile on the ground. This is easy to miss, and is optional to bother with.
The player has to lift it up with their crowbar. They then find a floorboard underneath the tile.
I believe this "hidden chamber" underneath the floorboard is where Karthik Bala is, or at least eventually leads to him. Attempting to break through by right-clicking leads to this text:
Tim then thinks to himself:
I have a hunch that whatever secret item the hooded stranger gives you is the item necessary to break through this floor board. No regularly-acquired inventory item will break through; the only one that interacts with the board is the crowbar, which leads to this text:
Either that or the item is for something else in that room. You can also use the crowbar to take off part of the airduct:
Notice that a person could crawl through it. Attempting to crawl through it regularly leads to Tim commenting that he could conceivably do it if he had a light source:
The only item the player has that might work here is a book of matches, but trying to use it on the duct does nothing.
This is why I'm asking for help. I'm stuck. I should mention that I've emailed Daevid Vincent, the former owner of thematrix.com before he sold it to warner brothers for obvious reasons, but didn't really get any relevant information to these secrets. I've also emailed the game's writer, Evan Rubenstein, which didn't really help to find these secrets although we did have a very good conversation. Apparently Karthik and Guha Bala were originally going to make these secrets only accessible if the player did not pick up a certain item. I don't know which item, nor do I know if that plan actually went through.
Can the codex help me discover the secrets of Synnergist?
Synnergist is a 1996 point and click adventure game with a graphical style resembling Noctopolis. It had pretty (unintentionally) funny FMV scenes as well as voice acting & animation.
It was notable for being Vicarious Visions' first video game - the company's founders supposedly made it in high school. Here's a plot blurb:
You can watch the game's introduction here:
Here's the interesting part. A magazine in the 90's called Coming Soon Magazine revealed that
I am seeking help in uncovering these secrets. the Vicarious Visions old website linked directly to that Coming Soon Magazine, and the current site links to the four fat chicks review which says that the secrets might exist.
About a year ago I found one of these secrets. I explained it on the vogons forum, but be warned that my explanation assumes you have basic knowledge of the game's structure.
I previously said:It doesn't tell me much about the plot, though. In chapter 3, if you don't collect more subway tokens when Tim is running low, you'll eventually be forced to go to the subway station at the Murder Scene location. In here, you'll witness a drug deal go bad, where one person ends up being stabbed.
From there, you can either ignore the body and head to the skyline restaurant, for Tim's date with Jessica, or you can investigate the body. You have to investigate the body for this easter egg to appear, as far a I know. After the two cutscenes play out when Tim investigates the body -- including another black & white vision -- you're transported to the entrance of the skyline restaurant.
Instead of investigating the body, you need to click Go To Subway. Normally, this would have the same effect as if you just brought up the map, but this time it leads to a secret area. It's worth noting that, normally, the arrow points to the left, but this time it points down. If you didn't investigate the body, this doesn't happen since you're on time for the dinner.
There's a hooded man to talk to, but he just mutters some vague dialogue about watching "everything and nothing at the same time", before saying that you should be going. Then you can't interact with him at all. There are other things to interact with, but they seemingly have no effect on the plot progression. I can't tell if this area is supposed to lead to more secrets, and if you leave, you can't get back. Tim says that it's "interesting" that the second garbage bin is larger than the first, but that could just be another red herring that the game likes to throw at you. I'm wondering if the player is supposed to find a way to shut down the electricity so they can travel down the tracks, but there's seemingly no way to do that.
Here's a video I made of the dialogue with the hooded stranger:
Now, looking through the files on the disc, I can get a glimpse into what the secrets are. The first two are encounters with this hooded stranger. The dialogue FMVs are stored in a folder called "CHARVID", then further separated into folders C01-C51 (separated by characters.) These are in .VID format. I can't play them using anything at my disposal. Changing the extension to .AVI gives me a glimpse into which characters are in what folder:
I cannot play these AVIs. Scrubbing through them with virtualdub gives me an error after a few frames.
However, in some of the folders are videos of these secret characters. For example:
So I've worked it out that there are 3 hidden scenes with character interaction. See this:
So, two of the encounters are with this hooded stranger. The other is with Karthik Bala, the co-founder of Vicarious Visions. I can trick the game into playing these videos during other character interaction. See this for example:
I have not gone through the trouble of getting all the videos to play through this method (which is really just renaming the files and creating a new .ISO). BUT I have played one from the second encounter with the hooded stranger, and he says "Take this, Tim!" or something like that, meaning he gives the player an item.
I believe I know what this item is for. Near the very end of the game, the player finds themselves revisiting the revolving cafe. Going into the unlocked security room (required to progress the game), the player can find a loose tile on the ground. This is easy to miss, and is optional to bother with.
The player has to lift it up with their crowbar. They then find a floorboard underneath the tile.
I believe this "hidden chamber" underneath the floorboard is where Karthik Bala is, or at least eventually leads to him. Attempting to break through by right-clicking leads to this text:
Tim then thinks to himself:
I have a hunch that whatever secret item the hooded stranger gives you is the item necessary to break through this floor board. No regularly-acquired inventory item will break through; the only one that interacts with the board is the crowbar, which leads to this text:
Either that or the item is for something else in that room. You can also use the crowbar to take off part of the airduct:
Notice that a person could crawl through it. Attempting to crawl through it regularly leads to Tim commenting that he could conceivably do it if he had a light source:
The only item the player has that might work here is a book of matches, but trying to use it on the duct does nothing.
This is why I'm asking for help. I'm stuck. I should mention that I've emailed Daevid Vincent, the former owner of thematrix.com before he sold it to warner brothers for obvious reasons, but didn't really get any relevant information to these secrets. I've also emailed the game's writer, Evan Rubenstein, which didn't really help to find these secrets although we did have a very good conversation. Apparently Karthik and Guha Bala were originally going to make these secrets only accessible if the player did not pick up a certain item. I don't know which item, nor do I know if that plan actually went through.
Can the codex help me discover the secrets of Synnergist?
Last edited:
for the write-up.
