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I felt like playing Shivers late last night, and afterward I decided to take a look at the game's resource files. Even though I've been through them once before, I found a lot of interesting items this time around, including some missing pages from one of the books in the game and some early renders of the hidden passages.

I've added several of the pictures I found to the Shivers section of my Sierra Resource Files site. Enjoy.

The animated gif at the end... is something.

Yeah, that's pretty harsh and yet feels all-too familiar. I should replay the game one of these days and see if I can't pinpoint the spot that caused the animator to go off their nut.

You think Bales give somebody hell over the looks of some Ixupi?

Very rude indeed. I wonder if Marcia knows it was included on the CD. Obviously it was put there on purpose and, unlike the other files, it obviously wasn't the intention to be inserted in the game. A low blow IMO.

Rudy wrote:Obviously it was put there on purpose and, unlike the other files, it obviously wasn't the intention to be inserted in the game.

Not necessarily. If you look at the contents of many of the resource files you find many things that were never intended to be used in the game, like rough sketches, content from other games and bits and pieces of things cut from the final game. There are so many resources used in the later games that it becomes almost impossible to keep track of everything. Removing things from the pool of resources may lead to errors if there is something linking to the removed item.

On the surface it looks like an insult, but there is an outside chance that this is not an intended insult as much as inside joke, possibly by Bales herself. Haven't you ever made a silly mistake before and smacked your forehead and think "Idiot!"?

Huh...that animated GIF has actually been there since I first put that page up a couple of years ago, and this is the first big response I've gotten to it. Like I said when I first posted it (on the official VU forums, I think), it really makes me wonder who snuck that text in there, and whether Marcia Bales ever knew about it.

The funny thing is, this is the only animation of that wire sparking I could find in the resource files. This may mean that the programmers either found a way to make the animation play without using the frames with the words in them or somehow masked the words so that they wouldn't be visible.

EDIT: I've added another interesting animation that I found in the resource files which I first mentioned on the official boards but never actually posted until now. I'm pretty sure it doesn't appear in the game, but if anyone has seen it, let me know.

Collector wrote:Haven't you ever made a silly mistake before and smacked your forehead and think "Idiot!"?

Way too often . Though i doubt i'd go as far as creating a "Rudy is a moron" animation and distribute it worldwide. If i'd publicly make fun of myself, i'd probably choose less offensive, but more sarcastic wording in a comic way (sorta Al Lowe style), but that's just me of course. Doubt this animation was Marcia's idea.

Doh!

I'd have to agree... if I was to trash talk myself... Moron seems... harsh.

I'd have it say "Tawmis is an idiot!" or something... but moron seems... less funny.

Akril wrote:EDIT: I've added another interesting animation that I found in the resource files which I first mentioned on the official boards but never actually posted until now. I'm pretty sure it doesn't appear in the game, but if anyone has seen it, let me know.

Never seen it and i've played Shivers countless times. As you mentioned above the animation, it appears to be the stone Ixupi. In the final version of the game the Stone Ixupi had killed Windlenot and escaped the museum some 20 years earlier, so it never appears in the game. I guess they hadn't decided until late into development which Ixupi would have taken the professor's life essence. Two things i noticed about the animation:
1) the stone ixupi (if it is the stone ixupi that is) looks far different from all other Ixupi, which look more cartoon-like. While the appearance of this Ixupi actually fits better with the overall look of the game, it also doesn't really resemble stone, does it?
2) his hiding spot. Almost every Ixupi can be avoided by walking around him, not directly facing his hiding place. However, in the tower, there is only one straight path, which apparently would have made it impossible to pass the stone Ixupi unless the player would have his complete vessel (as is the case with the oil Ixupi in the subterranean world).

Tawmis wrote:I'd have to agree... if I was to trash talk myself... Moron seems... harsh.

I'd have it say "Tawmis is an idiot!" or something... but moron seems... less funny.

Actually, when the terms were still used as clinical definitions (before they started being used as derogatory terms) a "moron" was the highest functioning mentally retarded person and "idiot" was the lowest. A moron had an IQ of 51-70, imbecile 26-50 and an idiot had an IQ of 0-25. Of course these are no longer considered valid terms. The current designations are "Profound mental retardation" at Below 20, "Severe mental retardation" at 20–34, "Moderate mental retardation" 35–49, "Mild mental retardation" at 50–69 and "Borderline intellectual functioning" at 70–84.

I think it's because I hear people in jest say, "Dude, you're such an idiot sometimes."

Where as I don't really hear others calling one another a moron in jest... though I am sure it happens.

I dunno... you should hear what my brother and I say to each other when goofing around.

Of course the derogatory terms don't relate directly to the old clinical terms. Perhaps because you could encounter someone in real life that had a moron's IQ, but not an idiot. The extreme absurdity of calling a normal person an idiot is more laughable than a moron.