1993 · Digital Pictures · First-person shooter · Shooter

Ground Zero: Texas

Sega exclusive

Space aliens are infiltrating the U.S. from a sleepy little town on the Texas/Mexico border, snatching bodies and paving the way for a greater invasion. Those they abduct return as Pod People-like drones, normal in appearance until they reveal themselves. The government's response is you - a technician driving custom-built gun cameras mounted around the town. Similar to Night Trap or Double Switch, you must monitor the town for alien activity, and respond to protect the lives of the citizens and your agents.

Released: 1 November 1993
Platforms: Sega CD
Genres: First-person shooter Shooter
Developers: Digital Pictures
Publishers: Sony Imagesoft
Modes: Single-player
Perspective: First person
Themes: Action Science fiction
Country: United States
Directors: Dwight H. Little

About

Ground Zero: Texas is a full motion video game, released for the Sega CD in November 1993. The game relies heavily on video footage, with which the player interacts. It contains 110 minutes of interactive footage from four different cameras. It was directed by Dwight H. Little, who is also known for the films Marked for Death and Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers.

Keywords

post-apocalyptic
interactive movie
cinematic
futuristic
full motion video
live-action cutscene

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Story

In 1995, aliens known as Reticulans attacked El Cadron, a small border town in Texas. The player has arrived to save the townspeople, who have been disappearing. The aliens have clever ways of disguising themselves as townspeople. The player's mission is to do away with the Reticulans, but they cannot be killed with regular guns.

The player is armed with four BattleCams, with a stunning particle beam that stops the alien temporarily. The player must rid the world of the Reticulan menace before the entire area is destroyed by a nuclear bomb.

Development

Ground Zero Texas was a "second-generation" title for Digital Pictures, their first titles for the Sega CD having been rehashes of titles developed for Hasbro's aborted NEMO system. The game had a $3 million dollar budget. Most of this was generated by the bundling of Sewer Shark with Sega CD consoles.

The game started life with the codename Project X, a script written by Digital Pictures co-founder Ken Melville that was inspired by Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Invaders from Mars. By the time development started, the script had been re-written by Alan B. McElroy, Edward Neumeier and Joshua Stallings.

Reception

Ground Zero: Texas was a bestseller in the UK for two months. It was the top-selling Mega-CD game in the UK for four months in 1994, from February to May.

It was awarded Best Sega Mega-CD Game of 1994 by Electronic Gaming Monthly. Though their review of the game criticized it for poor control design, bad acting, and corny dialogue, they praised the music and storyline and scored it a 7.5 out of 10.