Dreamweb

Cover art

Developer(s)| Creative Reality
Publisher(s)| Empire Interactive
Designer(s)| Neil Dodwell
David Dew
Platform(s)| MS-DOS, Amiga 500/600/1200
Release| 1994
Genre(s)| Adventure
Mode(s)| Single-player

Dreamweb is an MS-DOS and Amiga point-and-click cyberpunk top-down adventure game released in 1994, developed by Creative Reality and published by Empire Interactive Entertainment. The game features mature themes and a dark plot filled with violence and brief full frontal nudity; a rarity for games at the time.

Dreamweb was re-released as freeware in October 2012.[1]

## Contents

* 1 Overview
* 2 Story
* 3 Development
* 4 Reception
* 5 References
* 6 External links
* 7 Features
* 8 History
* 9 See also
* 10 References
* 11 External links

## Overview

The opening credits are reminiscent of Ridley Scott's Blade Runner. In addition to a similar typeface, the credits are displayed in white on black, with a loud metallic noise followed by a fade out, and the title appears in red on black. Much of the look and feel of the game is reminiscent of Blade Runner, while also drawing influence from the cyberpunk genre.

Dreamweb's musical score, composed by Matthew Seldon and Steve Boynton, is highly regarded, contributing to the atmosphere which made the game admired by many at the time; the DOS-only CD version had an extra audio track. The dark story also received praise. The original game included a booklet entitled Diary of a (Mad?) man, written by Stephen Marley, which has a far more layered and atmospheric 'prequel' story than the one in the game itself. The diary also supplies more background info on main character Ryan (and served as a copy-protection method).

The game was criticized for its poor top-down view and overlooking many conventions commonly observed in adventure games; for instance, while the player can examine and pick up most objects on-screen, the majority of them serve no purpose other than to take up inventory space. The inability to control the course of conversations was also seen as a flaw.

Some puzzles, although logical, are very simplistic - while in many adventure games of the time (even more adult adventures) the solution to bypassing an NPC generally involved giving them an object, Dreamweb puts an emphasis on gunplay and the killing of several characters, sometimes with gory results. It was also one of the first mainstream games to feature an uncensored sex scene, which was quite controversial at the time of release.[citation needed]

Dreamweb had two releases on the Amiga. The AGA version had 256 color graphics and an extra song over the standard version. A PC version was released, first on disk format. The Amiga version features a moody electronic soundtrack; the PC version is similar in style, although some of the compositions are different. The music is primarily short, looping, streaming sound files, with the PC version's being more advanced, although they suffer from low-fi encoding. A CD version was also released for the PC, which included full voice acting.

## Story

The protagonist and anti-hero is Ryan, a bartender in a futuristic dystopian city (implied to be in England, as evidenced by the use of British English terms such as "lift" and "bonnet") who has been plagued by strange dreams of an entity known as the Dreamweb. In the dream that opens the game, Ryan is asked by the master monk of the Keepers to be the deliverer and kill the seven evils, who are united to break the Dreamweb and send mankind spiraling into chaos. In Diary of a (Mad?) man, however, which precedes the start of the game, it is strongly implied that Ryan is descending into psychosis and has fabricated the whole Dreamweb scenario in his mind.

After Ryan leaves his girlfriend Eden's house for work, he learns that due to frequent lateness his boss has decided to fire him. After hearing Ryan's explanation, however, he decides to give him a two-week, fully paid vacation to recover. On the bar's TV, Ryan learns the name and location of the first evil: David Crane, a rock star who is housed in a hotel for a gig later that night. He visits his housebound friend Louis, who directs him to a place where a gun can be purchased. After doing so, he registers himself at the same hotel, and after managing to get himself up to the penthouse, killing two bodyguards in the process, he finds Crane in bed with a woman. The woman hides under the bed and, after Crane begs for mercy, Ryan kills him and is teleported to the Dreamweb where he learns of the second evil, a general. He returns home, and while checking the news (where he finds the report of Crane's death), he learns General Sterling is the guest of a talk show being filmed at a TV station.

He leaves for the heavily guarded building, and finds a weak spot in the security. He shoots a guard, enters the building and gets access to the rafters of the studio. After replacing a burned-out fuse, he manoeuvres a huge box over Sterling's head and drops it, thereby crushing the general to death, but also causing a ratings peak for the channel. Ryan is transported again to the Dreamweb, where he learns the third target is very close to one of his friends, none other than Eden's boss, Sartain. He collects information from Eden's work gear while she is bathing, and leaves for the company headquarters.

Ryan destroys a security console to get access to the upper floors, but as soon as he enters, he is greeted by two guards and a fleeing Sartain. He kills both guards with the help of a gem obtained in the Dreamweb, and in reading the contents of a briefcase grasped by the charred remains of a guard's arm, Ryan learns the identities of the remaining four members. He chases Sartain to the rooftop where Sartain tries to flee in a hover car, but Ryan opens fire on the vehicle, destroying it. After another trip to the Dreamweb, he arrives at the destroyed house of Julliet Chappel, another of the evils. Believing she died, Ryan picks up a half-burnt cartridge and returns home, where from reading its contents he discovers the location of her church.

Unable to get inside the church, he pursues Diane Underwood, who is in a heavily guarded beach house. Upon inspecting the surroundings of the house, Ryan finds the control box of the security system, and douses it in water, blowing up the turret which releases heavy bolts of energy inside the house. Entering by the huge hole in the wall, Ryan finds Underwood chopped in half, but still alive. After learning more about the "Project 7", Ryan kills the suffering woman. Back in the Dreamweb, he learns the remaining two evil are growing more powerful with each successive death of the members.

Arriving at the church and making his way into its secret underground passages, he finds the deceased, deformed body of Father O' Rourke, which leaves only one living member: Dr. Beckett. Ryan finds him in the subway, linked to the church's undergrounds. As Beckett tracks Ryan, he is run over by a train. Ryan returns to the Dreamweb, where he is thanked by the master monk, but also learns his fate. He returns to the real world for the last time, where he is shot dead by the police for his numerous crimes. Ryan's last vision is of his soul entering the Dreamweb.

## Development

The biggest influence for the game was the 1986 film Highlander. The developers applied the concept of seven deadly sins to the game in the form of Ryan's victims. The ending to the booklet Diary of a (Mad?) man was intentionally left ambiguous. Dialog trees were never considered to be part of the game because David Dew did not particularly like the mechanic. In 1995, DreamWeb was refused classification in Australia, due to a rock star showing his penis in the game. Underpants were added to the rock star and the game was resubmitted in the same year for an M rating.[2][3]

## Reception

Reception

| Review scores

Publication| Score
Adventure Gamers| [5]
Dragon| [4]
Jeuxvideo.com| 15/20[10]
Adventure Classic Gaming| [6]
Quandaryland| [7]
Pelit| 91/100[8]
NTSC-uk| 7/10[9]
Power Play| 85%[11]

The game was reviewed in 1995 in Dragon #215 by Jay & Dee in the "Eye of the Monitor" column. Both reviewers gave the game 1½ out of 5 stars.[4]

DreamWeb also received negative 2000s reviews from Austin Boosinger of Adventure Gamers (1½ out of 5 stars),[5] David Tanguay of Adventure Classic Gaming (2 out of 5 stars)[6] and Rosemary Young of the now defunct Quandaryland website (1 out of 5 stars).[7]

Positive reviews were given by Tapio Salminen of the Finnish video games magazine Pelit (91 out of 100),[8] Jamie Davies of the now defunct NTSC-uk website (7 out of 10),[9] the French gaming website JeuxVideo (15 out of 20)[10] and the video games magazine Power Play (85% out of 100%).[11] Will Groves reviewed the game for PC Gamer, and while praising the "atmospheric gameworld" he noted that the game felt "irretrievably old fashioned" concluding that while it was not a bad game it was a style of title that had been done many times before and offered nothing novel.[12]

## References

1. ↑ Boutonné, Arnaud (October 21, 2012). "Dreamweb Released As Freeware". ScummVM. http://www.scummvm.org/news/20121021/.
2. ↑ Kuorikoski, Juho (November 2014). "Hulluuden anatomia" (in fi). Pelit (Fokus Media Finland) (11/2014): 68–70.
3. ↑ Booker, Logan (10 November 2012). "In 1995, DreamWeb Was Refused Classification In Australia. Now It's Freeware". Gawker Media. http://www.kotaku.com.au/2012/11/in-1995-dreamweb-was-refused-classification-in-australia-now-its-freeware/.
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Jay & Dee (March 1995). "Eye of the Monitor". Dragon (215): 57–64.
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Boosinger, Austin (May 23, 2008). "DreamWeb review". http://www.adventuregamers.com/articles/view/18152.
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Tanguay, David (December 11, 2006). "DreamWeb - Review". Adventure Classic Gaming. http://www.adventureclassicgaming.com/index.php/site/reviews/221/.
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Young, Rosemary (April 1995). "Dream Web Review by Quandary". Quandary. http://www.quandaryland.com/jsp/dispArticle.jsp?index=24.
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Salminen, Tapio (August 1994). "Dreamweb - Peliarvostelut" (in fi). http://www.pelit.fi/index.php?id=60606.
9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Davies, Jamie (March 2006). "NTSC-uk review > PC > Dreamweb". NTSC-uk. http://www.ntsc-uk.com/review.php?platform=ipc&game=Dreamweb.
10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 "Test de DreamWeb sur PC" (in fr). JeuxVideo. February 16, 2010. http://www.jeuxvideo.com/articles/0001/00012384-dreamweb-test.htm.
11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 "Träume sind Schäume: Dreamweb" (in de). Power Play. October 1994. http://www.kultboy.com/index.php?site=t&id=6099&s=2.
12. ↑ Groves, Will (November 1994). "Review: Dreamweb". PC Gamer (UK): 94–95.

## External links

* Free download of the game at ScummVM
* DreamWeb review at NTSC-uk
* DreamWeb review & screenshots at Adventure Classic Gaming
* MobyGames is a commercial database website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes over 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms.[1] Founded in 1999, ownership of the site has changed hands several times. It has been owned by Atari SA since 2022.

## Features

Edits and submissions to the site (including screenshots, box art, developer information, game summaries, and more) go through a verification process of fact-checking by volunteer "approvers".[2] This approval process after submission can range from minutes to days or months.[3] The most commonly used sources are the video game's website, packaging, and credit screens. There is a published standard for game information and copy-editing.[4] A ranking system allows users to earn points for contributing accurate information.[5]

Registered users can rate and review games. Users can create private or public "have" and "want" lists, which can generate a list of games available for trade with other registered users. The site contains an integrated forum. Each listed game can have its own sub-forum.

## History

Logo used until March 2014

MobyGames was founded on March 1, 1999, by Jim Leonard and Brian Hirt, and joined by David Berk 18 months later, the three of which had been friends since high school.[6][7] Leonard had the idea of sharing information about computer games with a larger audience. The database began with information about games for IBM PC compatibles, relying on the founders' personal collections. Eventually, the site was opened up to allow general users to contribute information.[5] In a 2003 interview, Berk emphasized MobyGames' dedication to taking video games more seriously than broader society and to preserving games for their important cultural influence.[5]

In mid-2010, MobyGames was purchased by GameFly for an undisclosed amount.[8] This was announced to the community post factum , and the site's interface was given an unpopular redesign.[7] A few major contributors left, refusing to do volunteer work for a commercial website.{{Citation needed|date=June 2025} On December 18, 2013, MobyGames was acquired by Jeremiah Freyholtz, owner of Blue Flame Labs (a San Francisco-based game and web development company) and VGBoxArt (a site for fan-made video game box art).[9] Blue Flame Labs reverted MobyGames' interface to its pre-overhaul look and feel,[10] and for the next eight years, the site was run by Freyholtz and Independent Games Festival organizer Simon Carless.[7]

On November 24, 2021, Atari SA announced a potential deal with Blue Flame Labs to purchase MobyGames for $1.5 million.[11] The purchase was completed on 8 March 2022, with Freyholtz remaining as general manager.[12][13][14] Over the next year, the financial boost given by Atari led to a rework of the site being built from scratch with a new backend codebase, as well as updates improving the mobile and desktop user interface.[1] This was accomplished by investing in full-time development of the site instead of its previously part-time development.[15]

In 2024, MobyGames began offering a paid "Pro" membership option for the site to generate additional revenue.[16] Previously, the site had generated income exclusively through banner ads and (from March 2014 onward) a small number of patrons via the Patreon website.[17]

On February 13, 2025, Freyholtz stepped down as the site lead to move onto new projects, leaving operations to Tracy Poff, a veteran coder on the site, and Atari staff.[18]

## See also

* IGDB - game database used by Twitch for its search and discovery functions

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Sheehan, Gavin (2023-02-22). "Atari Relaunches The Fully Rebuilt & Optimized MobyGames Website". https://bleedingcool.com/games/atari-relaunches-the-fully-rebuilt-optimized-mobygames-website/.
2. ↑ Litchfield, Ted (2021-11-26). "Zombie company Atari to devour MobyGames". https://www.pcgamer.com/zombie-company-atari-to-devour-mobygames/.
3. ↑ "MobyGames FAQ: Emails Answered § When will my submission be approved?". Blue Flame Labs. 30 March 2014. http://www.mobygames.com/info/faq7#g1.
4. ↑ "The MobyGames Standards and Practices". Blue Flame Labs. 6 January 2016. http://www.mobygames.com/info/standards.
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Miller, Stanley A. (2003-04-22). "People's choice awards honor favorite Web sites". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
6. ↑ "20 Years of MobyGames" (in en). 2019-02-28. https://trixter.oldskool.org/2019/02/28/20-years-of-mobygames/.
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Plunkett, Luke (2022-03-10). "Atari Buys MobyGames For $1.5 Million". https://kotaku.com/mobygames-retro-credits-database-imdb-atari-freyholtz-b-1848638521.
8. ↑ "Report: MobyGames Acquired By GameFly Media". Gamasutra. 2011-02-07. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/game-platforms/report-mobygames-acquired-by-gamefly-media.
9. ↑ Corriea, Alexa Ray (December 31, 2013). "MobyGames purchased from GameFly, improvements planned". http://www.polygon.com/2013/12/31/5261414/mobygames-purchased-from-gamefly-improvements-planned.
10. ↑ Wawro, Alex (31 December 2013). "Game dev database MobyGames getting some TLC under new owner". Gamasutra. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/game-dev-database-mobygames-getting-some-tlc-under-new-owner.
11. ↑ "Atari invests in Anstream, may buy MobyGames". November 24, 2021. https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2021-11-24-atari-invests-in-anstream-may-buy-mobygames.
12. ↑ Rousseau, Jeffrey (2022-03-09). "Atari purchases Moby Games". https://www.gamesindustry.biz/atari-purchases-moby-games.
13. ↑ "Atari Completes MobyGames Acquisition, Details Plans for the Site's Continued Support". March 8, 2022. https://www.atari.com/atari-completes-mobygames-acquisition-details-plans-for-the-sites-continued-support/.
14. ↑ "Atari has acquired game database MobyGames for $1.5 million" (in en-GB). 2022-03-09. https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/atari-has-acquired-game-database-mobygames-for-1-5-million/.
15. ↑ Stanton, Rich (2022-03-10). "Atari buys videogame database MobyGames for $1.5 million". https://www.pcgamer.com/atari-buys-videogame-database-mobygames-for-dollar15-million/.
16. ↑ Harris, John (2024-03-09). "MobyGames Offering “Pro” Membership". https://setsideb.com/mobygames-offering-pro-membership/.
17. ↑ "MobyGames on Patreon". http://www.patreon.com/mobygames.
18. ↑ "An update on MobyGames leadership". 2025-02-13. https://www.mobygames.com/forum/3/thread/269628/an-update-on-mobygames-leadership/#post-269628.

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