Clue: 1998 жылғы бейімделу тарихы

Clue (known as Cluedo outside of North America) is a 1998 video game based on the board game of the same name. It is also known as Clue: Murder at Boddy Mansion or Cluedo: Murder at Blackwell Grange, depending on whether the country of release used American or British English. Clue runs on Microsoft Windows. It was developed in 1998 for Hasbro Interactive by EAI. Infogrames (now Atari) took over publishing rights for the game in 2000 when Hasbro Interactive went out of business. The game, just like the board game, is meant for 3 6 players due to the six suspects. The game garnered generally positive reviews upon release. Engineering Animation released a spin off named Clue Chronicles: Fatal Illusion in 1999.

Clue was developed by a branch of Engineering Animation, Inc. known as EAI Interactive. The development process was divided between EAI's interactive division located in Salt Lake City, Utah, and its main office in Ames, Iowa. While the majority of the programming and game design activities were conducted in Salt Lake, the Ames office focused on art and animations. The creation of the in game mansion, built piece by piece, initially began in Ames but shifted to Salt Lake City midway through the project. The primary motivation for developing the game was to enhance and rectify the shortcomings of the previous 1992 version, which was criticized for subpar AI, board presentations, and game mechanics. The new iteration of Clue sought to rectify these issues, with a particular emphasis on improving the artificial intelligence of computer players within the game. The development of Clue spanned approximately one year, with funding provided by the game's publisher, Hasbro Interactive. Chris Nash, Lead Programmer on the project, described the experience as both enjoyable and challenging, especially during crunch times near the project's conclusion. Nash explained the design process, highlighting the collaboration between the development team and Hasbro, the publisher. He acknowledged that Hasbro had the final say on graphical treatments, with one notable flaw being the lack of visual representation for suggestions made within the game. Nash discussed the challenge of aligning the UI design with both the Game Designer's vision and Hasbro's preferences. Despite some design conflicts, Nash emphasized that Hasbro's involvement generally did not involve excessive micromanagement. The characters' designs, particularly that of Miss Scarlet, underwent iterations before finalization. Nash also addressed an unconfirmed rumor that Miss Scarlet's appearance was modeled after the game's producer, Virginia. Unreliable source: date=August 2023

Clue enjoyed a longer shelf life than typical for video games. It remained available for purchase years after its 1998 release, either as a standalone product or part of collections such as the Classic Game Collection. The game's availability was also promoted through tie ins, including distribution with breakfast cereal and other Hasbro video games. The longevity of Clue was in part attributed to its association with the 50th anniversary of the original Clue board game.

The artificial intelligence (AI) implemented in Clue for computer controlled opponents was considered advanced for a digital board game conversion. The AI's ability to deduce solutions led to customer complaints of cheating, although the AI simply outperformed the average human player. The AI recorded players' suggestions and tracked information often overlooked by human players. This allowed the AI to deduce which cards players possessed without explicitly asking about them. Three difficulty levels for the AI were provided, with the hardest level utilizing the entire game history for decision making. The AI's development was led by Mike Reed, based on a design by Bob Pennington. Independent studies demonstrated the AI's effectiveness in making deductions about the game's case file contents. The success of Clue led to the reuse of its 3D characterizations in the Cluedo inspired title Fatal Illusion.

The video opens on a view outside Blackwell Grange/Boddy Manor. The view cuts to the inside hall with the game's murderer, holding a lit candlestick, walking down the hall and entering one of the rooms. The candle is extinguished and silhouetted via a lightning flash, an indeterminate human figure prepares to strike the victim when the video cuts to the game's title.

Mr. Boddy/Dr. Black's spirit has returned to shuffle the cards and hand them out the players, in order for them to discover how he was murdered then puts the three cards representing the game's murderer, room and weapon in a briefcase. Clue is a direct conversion of the original game as a video game.

AllGame gave the game 3 out of 5, commenting that "the game's graphics and sound are excellent and add to the escalating feel of suspense", while adding that "so much is happening in the visually stunning backgrounds, or the deep, sinister soundtrack" that the sometimes slow pace of the board game is unnoticeable. Computer Gaming World thought the game was "stunning", and thought the "sexy mysterious" soundtrack could have been made for a feature film. GameSpot gave it a rating of 7.6, saying: "Basically, if you love the board game, you're going to want this version. And if you haven't played the board game, buy this instead". CNET gave the game a 3.5 star rating, writing "this is probably more fun than playing the board game", while concluding that "overall, this is one of the best translations to the PC that Hasbro has ever done. Beyond the simple fault of some extra features that weren't implemented to their best effect, there aren't really many faults with the game". Christian Spotlight gave the game a rating of 4.5 out 5 stars, while Gamezebo gave the game a 4 out of 5 star rating. The game was named "Video Game of the Week" on 1999 02 06 in the Fresno Bee.