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Houston, we've had a problem."

A young man working on his first-ever comm unit has a problem too.

He can't seem to get to the right frequencies to do anything cool like listen to the 2WDA scanners-- but somehow, he's picked up those five words, and a lot of excitement back and forth between this place, Houston, and a starship called Odyssey. Join his adventure as he digs for the truth behind these words, and maybe few other things as well.

Starring:

Spencer Cavanaugh: The young man that builds a comm unit with the intent of impressing the girl of his dreams-- who gets far more than he could possibly imagined.
Lorin Selmar: The woman of Spencer's dreams, tomboy and all around gearhead.
Karin Selmar: Astronomer and head of Research at the Planetary Observatory. Karin is Lorin's mother, and a great supporter of learning and imagination.
Yamamizu Misaki: Lorin and Spencer's teacher, she has little time for the frivolities of youth, and no patience for what she considers 'Flights of Fancy'. Will she turn our intrepid pair in? Agent Zero: A Hegemony-level 'Operative' engaged in keeping this 'issue' quiet. What is his real goal? Irene and Markov Cavanaugh: Spencer's parents, highborn and well-moneyed, they disapprove of Lorin, and Spencer's little side-project. Will they get in the way?
James A Lovell, Jr: Astronaut, Mission Commander, and father, his final flight in Space ending in near-disaster. Follow along to his own words during that mission. (voice only.)

John 'Jack' Lousma: Capcom for that leg of the mission (voice only)

Fred Haise: Astronaut. Lunar module Pilot during the ill-fated flight. (voice only)

John 'Jack' L Swigert: Astronaut, Apollo 13 Command Module Pilot. (voice only)

I'll be updating the posts as artwork becomes available. Depending on the comments, I may also include side-images for Lovell, Haise, Swigert and Lousma in the final release, tentatively scheduled for March 30th.

My humblest thanks to the fine folks at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration for making not only a transcript available of the moments in question, but also the original audio taken from the air to ground loop during the flight itself.

It was a gripping moment in American history, now offered to a new generation, and all the generations to come.

Script: DarkSpartan
Character Art: Tag-
BG Art- Leon et al

Edit: A second quoted section has been added, along with additional audio. We're hunting music down now, but all of the crew audio clips are ready to go into the archive. A word of warning: Not everything from the two periods of times is included. Some of it's compressed for 'time', and dead air, and other bits omitted to maintain clarity.

This is an interesting idea. Many, many years in the future, many, many lightyears away from Earth, someone picks up a stray transmission of something that was happening. And, of course, they don't know what they just heard, only that something bad is going on out there. I'm rather interested to see how this plays out.

And, as always, Tag's art is wonderful.

Wait, what? This is based on a REAL event? With real audio? Dude, that is so freaking cool! I'm assuming your main characters' are fictional, but man that is awesome. Interest level has now just shot up over 9000!

I say include side images if there's enough time. I mean, is there anything cooler than astronaut vn side-images? XD

*Stops freaking out over this project long enough to wish you a hearty good luck.*

GeneDNC wrote:Wait, what? This is based on a REAL event? With real audio?

I hadn't originally intended to include the original audio, as I personally don't have the tools to take the files apart.

I took the idea up with my team, and we had someone who did. So we will have the quotes from the air to ground loop to go with the appropriate bits in the game.

I think that basing this off actual events is awesome. It's something that you don't really see much of (off the top of my head, I can't think of any VNs that do that, but I'm sure that there are ones). As always, Tag-'s artwork is very, very, nice.

redeyesblackpanda wrote:I think that basing this off actual events is awesome. It's something that you don't really see much of (off the top of my head, I can't think of any VNs that do that, but I'm sure that there are ones). As always, Tag-'s artwork is very, very, nice.

Technically, I'm not basing it on a real event. I'm using a real event, which I hope people will look into and try to learn about, to launch the rest of the VN, which is about a young couple trying to learn about something that the history books no longer contain.

The section in question, however, was a real event, and is presented much as it occurred (now with the actual voices!), albeit edited for length and to remove some of the more technical elements. After all, not everything would have survived eight hundred years intact...

I guess I should have went with "inspired by"
Sigh, I'm going to have a lot of games to play through after this month... I hope I manage to get some sleep.

New update! Nearly all the sprites are in, and the script's nearly complete. I have a source for backgrounds, and it looks like this one's going to be a good one. With Finals over, progress should be much faster.

I really like the staging for the story XD It reminds me of when I was a kid and we used to eavesdrop on the truckies. But it would be pretty amazing to be pulled into an event like that. Plus, actual audio! Now that's cool. I hope it goes will for you

We're putting the finishing touches on it now. I'm not a hundred percent happy with the edits that had to happen for the sake of time compression, but we did catch a fair bit of both moments in time. Having large chunks of missing signal isn't unwarranted, considering eight hundred years between the time the words were spoken and the time they were heard. Myself, I wish I could have counted on the audience to sit through the better part of forty minutes of audio, plus or minus pauses.

Oh, well. Can't win them all.

There are three 'standard' endings, and one 'True' ending, and in only one of those endings will Spencer *not* get the girl. However, in only one ending will Spencer get everything he's looking for.

Either way, final coding should be complete tomorrow. See you on the other side!