LOOM
LOOM is a graphical
adventure game originally released in
1990. It was both developed and
published by Lucasfilm Games (now called
LucasArts) and was the fourth game to use the
SCUMM adventure game engine. The project was led by
Brian Moriarty, a former
Infocom employee and author of the classic text adventures
Wishbringer (
1985),
Trinity (
1986) and
Beyond Zork (
1987).
A departure from earlier (and later)
LucasArts adventure games in many senses,
LOOM is based on a serious and complex
fantasy story. With its experimental interface, it eschewed the traditional paradigm of graphical adventures, where puzzles usually involve interactions between the game character, the environment, and multiple items the character can take into their possession.
LOOM's gameplay centers instead around magical four-note tunes (drafts) that the protagonist, Bobbin Threadbare, can play on his
distaff. Each draft is a
spell that has an effect of a certain type, such as "Opening" or "Night Vision". Drafts can be learned by observing an object that possess the qualities of the relevant draft; for example, examining a blade while it is being sharpened gives the player the "Sharpening" draft.
Some drafts, such as "Twisting", can be reversed by playing their notes backwards, while others, such as "Terror", are
palindromes and can not be reversed in this manner. The player's abilities increase over the course of the game, with more and more powerful drafts. At first, only the notes
C,
D and
E are playable, but by the end of the game
F,
G,
A,
B and
C' (high
C) are also available.
The game can be played at three difficulty levels, each with slightly different hints. For example; the "Expert" level does not mark the distaff and is played solely
by ear. In the original version, the expert player is rewarded with a graphic sequence that does not appear in the two other levels. The DOS
CD version, however, shows a much shorter version of this sequence to all players.
Prologue
"It was long after the passing of the second shadow, when dragons ruled the twilight sky, and the stars were bright and numerous..." |
A screenshot of LOOM running in ScummVM. |
The events of the game are preceded by a 30 minute audio drama, included with some versions of the game on audiocassette tape. It is established that the Age of the Great Guilds arose when humans once again tried to establish dominion over nature. (The world is not defined in relation to ours, but many hold that it happens in a greatly distant future, since the events of the game are said to occur in 8004.)
People banded together to form city-states of a common trade "devoted to the absolute control of knowledge, held together by stern traditions of pride, and of fear". The humble guild of Weavers established themselves as masters of woven fabric, though they eventually transcended the limits of cloth and began to weave "subtle patterns of influence into the very fabric of reality". They were persecuted for these acts of "witchcraft", and purchased an island far off the mainland coast, which they called Loom.
Lady Cygna Threadbare is introduced as a bereaved mother who begs the Elders of the Guild of Weavers to use the power of the Loom to end the suffering of the Weavers. Their numbers are failing and their seed is barren. The Elders,
Atropos,
Clotho and
Lachesis, reprimand Cygna, telling her that it is not their place to play gods.
Cygna, despite their warnings, secretly assumes control of the Loom and plants one gray thread. She inadvertently draws an (unforeseen) infant out of the Loom, incurring the wrath of the Elders. She surrenders the child to Dame Hetchel, the old serving woman, and accepts her fate. The Elders cast the "
Transcendence" draft on her, transforming her into a swan and banishing her from the pattern (the waking world, as the weavers call it). Hetchel names the child
Bobbin, and cares for him as her own.
Bobbin grows up ostracized from the rest of the Guild. The Elders note that the presence of his gray thread has thrown the pattern into chaos, and the Loom foresees the very unraveling of the pattern. For these reasons, the Elders ban him from learning the ways of the Guild until a decision can be made on Bobbin's seventeenth birthday. Hetchel, however, defies the Elders and secretly teaches him a few basics of weaving. This is where the game begins.
Plot
On his seventeenth birthday, Bobbin is summoned by the Elders in order to determine his fate. But after they punish Hetchel with the "Transcendence" draft for educating Bobbin, a swan comes. She casts the "Transcendence" draft on all the villagers, transforming all the Weavers except Bobbin into swans who leave through a rift in the sky.
Hetchel, who is now a
cygnet, tells Bobbin that the swan (who visits him every year on his birthday) came to save the Weavers from the Third Shadow that is about to cover the world. Bobbin then moves on to find the flock. On his way, he meets other guilds and has several adventures. Eventually he encounters a Cleric who is after the Scrying Sphere of the Glassmakers, the swords of the Ironsmiths and the products of the Shepherds. The Cleric claims the Weaver's
distaff to rule the world with an army of the
undead, thus fulfilling the
prophecies.
Originally, LOOM was to be the first game of a trilogy. The two sequels planned were titled
FORGE and
THE FOLD, starring Bobbin's friends Rusty Nailbender and Fleece Firmflanks. These sequels would wrap up open plot-threads and bring closure to the open ending of the original game, with
Chaos eventually being defeated. However,
LOOM's original development team were now all working on other projects, and as Lucasfilm Games was a small company at that time, no one else could be found to do it; hence, they were cancelled. In a letter[
1] to a the fan-made LOOM sequel
CHAOS, Brian Moriarty says
LOOM was originally published for
DOS on
floppy disk with
EGA graphics and was later ported to the
Amiga,
Atari ST,
Macintosh and
TurboGrafx 16 systems. It was re-released on
CD-ROM for the
FM Towns computer in
1991 with
VGA graphics and an enhanced digital soundtrack. The final version of
LOOM was released on CD-ROM for DOS in
1992. It used the FM-Towns version's graphics and had a full voiceover soundtrack. All of these versions of
LOOM, with the exeption of the TG16 version, can now be played on a variety of different platforms using
ScummVM, although the FM-Towns version currently suffers from a few audio-related problems and has numerous graphical glitches.
The DOS CD version has retouched graphics, greatly-shortened dialogue (much to the fans' dismay) and lacks a number of features found in the floppy version, such as alternate solutions to puzzles. The game is also missing close-ups during dialogues, probably because
lip-sync to CD audio was difficult or impossible, yet deemed a requirement for some. These portraits are present in the game's resource file, however (with the words "Loom sucks" written on one of the faces [
2]). The notorious dialogue edits are claimed by many people (including the designers) to be due to a lack of CD space; however, there is still plenty of room on the disc, even though the audio is stored as an ordinary
CD Audio track. Most likely, all of this is due to the inexperience of the LucasFilm Games programmers with the CD format — but this is speculation.
A rather persistent and common misconception about the game is that
Orson Scott Card helped make the original version, based on the fact that his name appears in the credits. Card says on his
website that this is untrue, and that Moriarty put his name into the credits based on a brief conversation they had prior to the release. Card did, however, help Sara Reeder shorten the game's dialogue for the 1992 CD-ROM re-release.
Due to a licensing agreement with (now defunct)
Mindscape, the DOS CD-ROM version is no longer available; until 2006, the floppy disk version could be bought from LucasArts and then patched with a download from
Home of the Underdogs, an
abandonware website. Unfortunately the Underdogs' patch doesn't synchronize the audio correctly.
The FM-Towns version of
LOOM has redrawn 256-color colour graphics (including character portraits) and uses the original dialogue from the floppy version with no scenes cut short (in contrast to the DOS CD-ROM version). In addition it features a digital audio soundtrack with alternate versions of tracks played (and looped) after the regular versions have finished. The game unfortunately doesn't have any speech, but many still consider this the best version of
LOOM.
The TG16 version features a combination of both the original 16 colour and higher quality 64 colour graphics. It also uses the regular music from the FM-Towns version and has all sound effects stored on the disc as audio tracks.
Music
The original package offered an
audio tape with a 30 minute
audio drama that explained the nature and history of the
LOOM world, and the whereabouts of Bobbin's birth. The game is a direct continuation of the story. The drama was enriched by original music composed by
Jerry Gerber. Most of the actors of the audio drama reprised their roles for the "Talkie" version of the game.
The majority of in-game music consists of excerpts from the
Swan Lake ballet by
Tchaikovsky. These are played from the disc on CD versions; other versions have sequenced music. While supporting the PC speaker and
AdLib, the original EGA game originally lacked built-in
Roland MT-32 support. A form included in the package could be mailed to LucasFilm Games as an order for an extra game disk providing MT-32 support which was later also released as a downloadable patch. This disk also came with an additional music track that was played before the opening cutscene.
Box Contents
The package also offered an illustrated notebook,
The Book of Patterns, supposedly belonging to apprentice weavers in the game world. Its purpose was to optionally note there the drafts that could be learned, as well as describing some that were not seen in the game, with interesting tales related for each draft. Each description also included a staff and four spaces in which to record the four respective notes of the draft. Due to the random nature of the drafts, however, it is highly advised that any noted drafts be written in pencil, since their exact threads changed from game to game.
Drafts functioned in much the same way
magic spells do in traditional adventure games, but with the caveat that Bobbin can use them as often as he pleases, so long as he is in possession of his distaff (for spinning the threads that make up the draft) and the object or creature being affected by the draft is susceptible to it.
Drafts take the form of musical note sequences on the
C major scale. With the exception of "transcendence", the actual note sequences of drafts change each time the game is played, and thus have to be learnt as part of the game. Bobbin is initially capable of spinning drafts with the notes C, D and E. Often, drafts can be heard by Bobbin, but he cannot repeat them as he lacks the necessary notes. As the game progresses, further notes are added in order, finally reaching C D E F G A B C.
Bobbin learns the note sequences for drafts in several different ways, for example by reading books or listening to others spin. The sequence of notes used in the draft can be played in reverse, which often provides the opposite effect of the original draft.
The great Loom on Loom Island is capable of echoing the last draft spun in its presence, with the sole exception of any drafts Bobbin spins himself, which can help the player commit the necessary notes to memory. There are quite a few drafts Bobbin can learn.
*Opening: either forces an existing gateway between two spaces (opens a locked door, for example, or moves a rock out of a cave entrance it's blocking), or more incredibly, creates a portal through a space in which none existed before (as when Bobbin "opens" the sky early in the game). Can be reversed into the "Closing" draft.
*Dyeing: changes the color of something into another; as powerful as the Weaver's current skill level. In the game, Bobbin hasn't yet mastered this draft, and is only able to change objects to be a green color he greatly dislikes. Can be reversed into the "Bleaching"/"Color Reverting" draft.
*Emptying: totally removes a substance from within its parent vessel. Works between something as small as a chalice to as large as a pool of water ... possibly even an ocean if the Weaver was skilled enough, although this is only theory. Can be reversed into the "Filling" draft.
*Straw Into Gold: transforms common straw into gold, just like the popular
Rumplestiltskin fairy tale. Can be reversed into the "Gold Into Straw" draft.
*Night Vision: allows the Weaver spinning it to see in the dark. This is not permanent, and needs in be recast in other dark places the weaver visits. Irreversible.
*Twisting: causes an object to become twisted like a corkscrew. Can be reversed into the "Untwisting" draft, which is its primary use in the game.
*Terror: instills an intense fright in its target, which is entirely subjective to whomever it is affecting -- one man might see the effect as a mighty dragon, while another might see himself surrounded by flames. Irreversible.
*Healing: completely restores its target to perfect health, to the point that resurrection (if the soul of the person is still connected with his body) itself is possible. Irreversible.
*Sharpening: enhances an edged weapon's blade. Can be reversed into the "Blunting" draft.
*Reflection: causes the caster and the target to switch forms. The draft is cancelled when someone is harmed.
*Silence: makes a target unable to produce any sound and speak. Can be reversed into the "Silence dispel" draft.
*Shaping: transforms the target. Can be reversed into the "Shape Restoring" draft.
*Unmaking: completely destroys and annihilates its target. Irreversible, even by the Healing draft.
*Transcendence: Dissolves the ties that bind the target's threads to the Pattern, elevating mind and body into an undefined state of existence. Transcended beings are said to assume the forms of birds, constellations, or even sunspots.
|
A character from LOOM advertising the game in a separate LucasArts adventure. |
Typical for
LucasArts, some later games like
The Secret of Monkey Island referenced the
LOOM characters and storyline. For example, inside the "Scumm Bar" in
The Secret of Monkey Island, there is a character from
LOOM (Bishop Mandible's assistant, Cobb) dressed as a pirate with a badge on his shirt that says "Ask me about LOOM", who will happily divulge marketing information when so asked. A seagull from
LOOM also appears at the Scumm Bar's back door. Later in the game, after taking a nasty blow to the head, one of the things the player, as Guybrush Threepwood, can say is "I'm Bobbin. Are you my mother?" This is a reference to the main character of
LOOM, Bobbin Threadbare.
In
The Curse of Monkey Island, Guybrush can mention
LOOM's unpopularity when he is captured by LeChuck. The game also features a faceless character in a grey cloak (
The Lost Welshman) who looks very similar to Bobbin.
In
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure, a painting in the German castle features a beach that appears as scenery in
LOOM. This is out of the ordinary since references are usually done for earlier games, not upcoming ones.
A broken record found in the fan remake
Maniac Mansion Deluxe is labeled as the "LOOM Soundtrack". When the player puts it on, the Weavers' theme music is played.
Space Quest IV features a computer store where
Roger Wilco can browse many real-life game parodies. One of them is "Morian Brianarty's"
BOOM, advertised as "the easiest game ever; no commands, no inventory, no puzzles, no characters, no plot" et al.
*
LOOM was the first game to follow the
LucasArts Game Design Philosophy, which states that the player will never be killed or forced to restart the game and won't have to "spend hours typing in synonyms until [they] stumble on the computer's word for a certain object."
* The DOS CD version of
LOOM was the first "Talkie"
SCUMM game made.
* 'Cygna' is the feminine form of
swan in
Latin.
* The names of the Elders of the Guild of Weavers are borrowed from
Greek mythology's three
Fates, who measured life on a thread; note also that contrary to the mythology, where all Fates are old women, in the game Atropos is a man. Note also that
Clotho's name has been masculinized as
Clothos, but in the game she remains female.
* The drafts of "Opening" and "Transcendence" are the only two that are not randomly generated and never change, since they are heard in the audio drama and so integral to the storyline.
*
LOOM at
Home of the Underdogs*
Review at The Good Old Days*
A highly informative LOOM fansite*
A Fanmade Sequel to LOOM*
Interview with Brian Moriarty
