[laffer]

It Came from the Desert & Antheads

It Came from the Desert is a game released by Cinemaware for the Amiga computer in 1989, and Antheads is the 'sequel' released in 1990... actually it's a datadisk that adds a new campaign while keeping the same environments and characters from the first game.

Before I start getting into what these games are like, I'd like to point out that Cinemaware has actually put both games up on their site, where you can download them free of charge.
You have a few options of which versions to download, but the Amiga versions are the only ones worth playing... while the Amiga versions are excellent, all the ports are very poor.

Here are the links for the download locations for both games -
It Came from the Desert - free download
Antheads - It Came from the Desert II - free download

There are not adventure games by any strict definition of the term, in fact you probably have to use the term quite loosely.
It would be more accurate to say they're a mixture of action and adventure games... they have quite heavy focus on action sequences but also contain very much of what could be seen as adventure-game inspired gameplay.

Just to give an idea of the setting and storyline, and this is about the first game but will also apply to much of the 'sequel' as they share so many of the same elements, I'll quickly give a little summary of what It Came from the Desert is about.

Basically, it's a game inspired by the style found in cheesy 50s B-movie monster flicks, and the game imitates this style masterfully.
You control a geologist studying rocks in a small desert town situated way out in the middle of nowhere, called Lizard Breath.

As the game starts, you learn he has already spent a bit of time there, but now a huge meteorite has come crashing down in the area, which is something a geologist should find interesting.
There isn't much time to study that though, as the meteorite ends up causing something bizarrre to take place - lots of gigantic ants start making appearences.
First a few here and there, but near the end of the game they're swarming the area.

Your mission in the game is to collect four different kinds of evidence, have them analyzed by the local scientist and then use them to convince the stubborn Mayor that the danger is very real... at which point much larger resources can be used to fight the ant infestation.

The game takes place in first person view - much of the time you visit various places around town and talk to the townspeople you encounter... this is done by having a list of responses to pick from, like a lot of regular adventure games.

The reason this can't be called an adventure game by any traditional definition is that the game hardly has anything worth calling puzzles... most of the time the important part about talking with people is getting hints of where to go to make important progress... for example, you might overhear people at the local bar talking about how they've heard there's something odd going on over at pump station 2, and things of that nature.

However, you do need to figure out exactly where the ant nest is at the very end of the game, and I suppose this could be viewed as somewhat of a puzzle... but it's mostly just piecing it together based on what you've heard people say and where ant attacks seem to be the most frequent, things like that.

The action sequences are very varied... but the kind of action sequences you will encounter by far the most often are ones where you battle giant ants.
Whenever you're visiting an area, and ants happen to be there, one of these action sequences start.
First you're given a first person view of a giant ant entering the screen from the right side, and slowly walks across to the left... during which you are given control of a hand holding a gun, and the objective is to shoot the antennae off of the ants head... which can be quite difficult at times.
However, should the ant leave the screen before you have successfully done this, you get a closeup screen of the ants head, covering most of the screen... at which point you have a few seconds more to shoot off the antennae.

When you've finished this sequence, you're given a top down view where you view your character as a tiny guy running around, and in this part you throw hand grenades at ants until they've decided they've had enough and head back for the hills.

Here you can see one of the issues with the game - it doesn't necessarily make complete sense in every way... it's never explained why you, as a geologist, are carrying hand grenades, for instance.
So if such plot 'holes' or omissions... whatever you call it... if that bothers you, then I'd probably not bother with this game.

The other issue I have with the game is that the pacing is often not as good as it could have been... it could have benefitted from not being a floppy based game, especially not considering how the Amiga used DD floppies with much less storage space than standard HD PC floppies.
So the game can feel like it's moving a bit too quickly at times, especially the way you can encounter one of the ants nearly immediately after you start playing, if you go to the right place.
It's not a huge problem and doesn't end up ruining a lot, but it would still have been cooler had this been done better.

Another of the action sequences is escaping the hospital. Whenever you fail at an action sequence, you wake up in the hospital... where you can either choose to accept treatment or attempt to escape the hospital, which is pretty difficult! Doctors and nurses, everyone is out to prevent you from leaving the hospital.

The reason escaping the hospital is better than accepting the treatment is that the game is time-based.
Time is constantly ticking away, and you have a total of 15 in-game days to solve the game. I'll get back to this a bit more later on, but with regards to the hospital, accepting treatment can often cost you several days.

You also have an action sequence featuring the local gang of bullies who will eventually challenge you to a game of "chicken", where you are given a 3D view of the road and have to make sure they are the ones to end up swirling off the road, and not you... and you also have to make sure you don't crash into them, of course.

Then you have a knife-fight minigame in which you see your character and your opponent from above and fight using your knife, with a small selection of moves... fortunately you can find one tactic here that always works, as this is the one action sequence I find quite dull and annoying... so having a way to quickly and easily finish this is a relief.

Another sequence takes place when visiting the tiny local airport and renting a plane there... this is quite vital to finding the ants nest, and it's also a convenient way to kill ants as every time you rent a plane, it's loaded with 10 gas canisters that when used correctly are great to kill several ants at once. You just have to make sure to return to the airport before your fuel runs out.

The reason this is vital to finding the ants nest is that while flying, you get the same top-down view I mentioned earlier, the one you get when throwing grenades at ants while on foot.
The thing is, if you walk any significant stretch on foot, you end up passing out in the desert sun and waking up in the hospital.
By using the plane, you can explore the entire area... and this is a pretty cool feature as you actually have the full map available to look at... it's pretty neat to fly over and get a top down view of the areas you usually see in your normal first person, adventure game style view.

[laffer]

Finally, when you've gathered the evidence and presented it to the mayor, you get one last sequence... not so much an action sequence, this one has you looking at a map of town and placing military units, contruction workers and civilians at strategic locations to help keep the ants back while you're figuring out where the nest is.
It's pretty cool how if you go to one of the places you've placed military units, say... then you'll see tanks and such there that will help you kill the ants (they fight ants regardless of whether you're there or not, of course... but it's nice how you actually see them fight ants if you go there yourself).

Now a bit more about the game being on a timer - this isn't just a gimmick, it's quite a vital factor in the game... because events will take place regardless of whether you are present or not.
This isn't as bad as it sounds as you get several chances to get the evidence you need and enough clues to finish the game... so it does not result in encountering dead ends, generally speaking.
I think this adds to the feel of the game, the place feels much more dynamic and 'real' than it would have if everything had to be triggered and played in sequence like normal adventure games.
Obviously it also greatly adds to the replay value of the game, there's always some little thing you've missed out on.

Another way in which this impacts gameplay is you're forced to think somewhat strategically about how you spend your time... for instance, on the map screen (not the one I've described earlier, which you can walk/fly around and explore, in this instance I'm talking about a seperate map of the area in which you select locations to visit), the longer the distance from your current location to where you want to go, the more time will be spent.
Luckily, hovering the cursor above destinations lets you see how much time will pass, allowing you to decide whether or not going there is worth the time spent travelling.

The sound and graphics in the game are both really nice, quite a lot better than most of what you could find on IBM based PC systems back then.
This creates a wonderfully eerie/creepy atmosphere, making it a lot of fun to explore the various locales around town, and also locations quite a distance from the town centre, such as dead volcanoes.

The atmosphere in the game is likely the most memorable thing about it, and the reason why so many people having owned an Amiga back in the day still have very warm feelings about this classic game.

It's obviously only recommended for the kind of adventure gamers that don't mind action sequences, as like I've already made quite clear, the game has a fair share of those.
But the first person exploration/talking is what you'll be left remembering - despite the various action sequences, this still feels like the real meat of the game.

The datadisk, Antheads, is also very much worth playing - it continues the story from the first game, though you play as a different character. The various action sequences are pretty much identical, but the whole new storyline ensures it's still fun to play through... and they've added one big difference - in this game, the ants have developed a plot to turn humans into their slaves, which means people can suddenly grow antennae and mandibles out of their heads, resulting in quite disturbing appearances

It also has one large puzzle, which more resembles classic adventure game puzzles even though one part of solving it requires you to play an action sequence.

All in all, these are really nice games, well worth playing if one doesn't mind dealing with action sequences.
Good stuff

If someone here has already played these games, I'd find it interesting to hear opinions!

Finally, if you're curious about what the games actually look/sound like, here are two links to full longplays of each of the games... but because of the timer based nature of the games meaning events happening regardless of you being present, these longplays don't show everything you can encounter in the games.

Keep in mind that these are the kinds of games that are nowhere near as interesting to watch someone play as they are to play yourself... because of how the wonderful atmosphere of the games is such a big part of the enjoyment and there's no way to become all that immersed by just watching longplays on Youtube.

Here are the links -
It Came from the Desert longplay
Antheads longplay

[SamandMax]

Great write up! I haven't played Antheads but It Came From the Desert is great, an incredibly unique game. Cinemaware did a lot of great stuff like this - King of Chicago being my favourite, an adventure/action mix like this with a mobster twist.

[laffer]

Thanks!

And yeah - Cinemaware was a great company back in the day, with their own unique style of game design, I loved several of their games... but It Came from the Desert and Antheads were (and still are) my absolute favourites.

EDIT - btw, I highly recommend you play Antheads as well, it's just as good as the original... in fact, I actually prefer Antheads (might very well be as it was the one I played first, though).
The storyline is great and it's really cool how in this game regular people turn into 'antheads' (upon which you simply shoot their antennae off and they return to normal, but still cool).

Also, even if it's a long time since you played the original, there's no need to replay that first to freshen up on the storyline in that game... you can just as easily play Antheads as a stand-alone game... the main connection to the original are just references here and there.
In fact it's probably a good idea to wait a while in between playing the two games, as much of the gameplay is so similar.

[Agustin]

Great post! These are amazing games, easily the best from Cinemaware. Even though they relied too much on minigames, the adventure-y parts were terrific and remain very atmospheric. I have many fond memories of these.

[rayvio]

I used to have It Came From The Desert on the Amiga, never did complete it but I enjoyed the adventurey portions enough to try a few times until I discovered the real adventure games
I vaguely remember messing up the chicken game by crashing into the back of the car before it had turned around (I was a naive kid who didn't actually know how to play "chicken") and missing an appointment due to getting caught trying to escape from hospital
was a fun game though, I'd love to see what could be done with a remake as a kind of RPG/Adventure hybrid, maybe similar to Morrowind or Dragon Age

[erodola]

Loved It came from the desert! I was too young to understand English then, but I just loved hanging around and feel the atmosphere

[laffer]

Seems I was spot on when it comes to the atmosphere being one of the most memorable aspects of this game, judging from the replies so far

Not a big surprise of course, something about this game manages to conjure up a great atmosphere... probably has quite a bit to do with the really great soundtrack, and the setting as well.

Of course even much more when we played it way back then, probably something one would not get from it now... but something about this game managed to evoke certain feelings much more so than a lot of games at the time.

[laffer]

I just finished recording a longplay of the Turbografx CD version of It Came from the Desert, a really odd version of the game.

It Came from the Desert Turbografx CD longplay

It's pretty much completely different, but it shares some similarities with the original -

* the setting is the same - set in the 50s in a small desert town, though they changed the cool original name of Lizard Breath to the new lame name of Lovelock.

* your main ally is a somewhat nutty scientist

* your enemy is giant ants, and your mission is to take out the queen

* humans are taken over by the ants (similar to Antheads, only in this version they seem to be replaced by clones or something like that)

* you have a limited amount of days to finish the game

* it's nonlinear in that you select your destinations and you can only visit so many areas each day... meaning you will not see everything on your first playthrough, similar to the Amiga version

* the gameplay consists of talking to people and playing various minigames, this concept is similar to the Amiga version (though the minigames aren't as good by far, except one that is very similar)

* at one point you get a map screen of the town, displaying places you need to protect... only unlike the Amiga version, you only see this map once and it has no functionality